


Fill in the Space

by Star_right



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Blood, Boys Being Awkward, Coming Out, Existential Fear, Keith is the victim here, Lance is a flirt, M/M, Slow Build, Suicidal Thoughts, lost at sea, post season one, season one spoilers, so he says, stranded in space, tragic backstory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-07-25 07:49:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7524454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_right/pseuds/Star_right
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lance thought that the only thing worse than being stranded alone on an alien planet would be being stranded on an alien planet alone with Keith. Turns out loneliness does strange things to people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is honestly just world building but it was really fun to write. I can't say when I'll update. Probably sooner if I get a positive response. Enjoy!

The only familiar sound Lance ever heard anymore was the sound of the meek wind pushing water onto the shore in gentle waves. There was nothing else to hear. Other than that it was always quiet. Sometimes silent. It was terrifying.

Lance grew up with six siblings. Silence was not a concept. Ever.

Even since Lance left for school, even when Lance had been alone, the silence had never been like this.

Lance was sure that he was stuck on the most unsettlingly quiet planet in the known universe.

When he and Blue were thrown out of the decaying wormhole, they immediately crashed into a dwarfish planet with no atmosphere and bland gray-blue rocks. Getting off the planet wasn't that hard due to the low gravity, except about ninety percent of Blue’s systems were fried by stupid Galra energy.

The back thruster only worked sporadically and just one side thruster was half operational, so if Lance wanted to turn right he had to turn two-hundred and seventy degrees counter-clockwise. That was fun.

But the scariest part by far was floating around in space, no where close to anything he'd ever know, in a barely functional magic space lion with minimal life support. Lance soon found out that space was fucking lonely.

At the Blue lion’s speed they constantly drifted by totally barren asteroids, moons, even solar systems, with nothing more than pitiful rocks. Space went on forever and there was just… nothing. Nothing, after nothing, after nothing. Alone was an understatement.

After a small eternity of horrible freeze dried rations, Lance drifted into a seemingly habitual solar system with a main phase yellow star. Lance couldn't help thanking God. He was headed straight for an earth-sized bluish-green planet with promising cloud cover. He look at the date on the staticky digital clock in Blue.

A week. What had felt like a soul crushing eternity in space had been just barely a week, Lance realized glumly. Voltron lions could cover thousands of miles in minutes, in a week… Lance couldn't even imagine how far they'd flown, and it scared him. He could still be an infinity away from earth. It could take him years to get back. Years he didn't have. Life support in the lion was three weeks thanks to Pidge. Three weeks that would not get him anywhere near a planet he would recognize. Not that Blue could operate for three weeks either. Not in this condition.

Lance didn't even realize that Blue was already entering the atmosphere of the blue planet. He really tried not to crash, but hey, they can't all be winners. His fuel level was below two percent and the sounds his air recycler was making were not promising. He couldn't quite say whether or not any of his thrusters were even working, when he crashed into the misleadingly shallow ocean.

At least his ship could walk.

And Blue was the guardian of water. That was a plus. The gravity hear seemed to be lower than earth’s too. Every step Blue took felt more like a leap, even through water.

Water. More like the endlessly stretching ocean.

It was just blue in every direction. Lance went on for hours and hours of just water, until there was finally, finally land. It was surreal how far the shallow ocean stretched on. The planet was so smooth he could see far beyond the horizon. What he saw wasn't land though. It was a huge cluster of huge gray and tawny… Vines?

When Lance got close enough, what he saw was a beautiful monstrosity. Huge curling vines as thick as buildings twisting through each other on what looked like the only land mass on the entire planet. Tops of trees and roots were tangled up in perfectly transparent water, while some of the huge trunks stretched up into where the clouds would probably be if it wasn't perfectly sunny on this part of the planet. The leaves were still green with chlorophyll but they had spiky looking flowers, that were a weird silvery transparent color that Lance could describe beyond that.

Blue’s metal paws sunk deep into the fine golden sand and trodded into a patch of shade. Lance would have jumped right out, happy to set foot on something solid for the first time in over a week but there was a small issue.

Oxygen.

If the atmosphere was composed of less than twenty percent oxygen or had even half a percent of a toxin Lance would be doomed to suffocate in his cabin once the rattling air recycler finally broke.

He pulled up the lion’s atmospheric adaptation readings with shaky hands and read slowly;

Atmospheric pressure: 0.999708 atm  
Gravity: 86% earth gravity  
Atmospheric composition:  
27.8% oxygen  
70.6% Nitrogen  
<2% Helium, hydrogen,other.  
Temperature: 78.6 degrees F

Lance let out a huge sigh of relief. Somehow he had managed to float through the outskirts of known universe into, probably, the only human friendly planet for billions of miles in any direction.

Cautiously, Lance popped open the hatch. With his space helmet on he sunk into the warm, alien sand. Lance held his breath as he pressed the button to lift his visor. The only thing between him and possible death by breathing.

After not exploding, choking, suffocating, or anything of the sort, Lance peared past his eyelashes at the extraterrestrial world around him. Harsh sunlight filtered through bright green leaves that were almost the size of Lance’s face. The sand glowed under the sun’s touch.

Literally glowed. It must have had some sort of metallic property because it was almost impossible to look at in direct sunlight it was so reflective.

Lance looked across the utterly bare stretch of beach between two distant but colossal roots. Creamy pink and white boulders littered the cove. They looked sort of like marble with sparkling swirls of pure white stone mixed in among the pink and off-white.

His feet sank deeper into the sand. For a second Lance thought it might not be the worse place to be stranded. For a second Lance had thought that he would be okay here. For a second Lance had had hope.

That was three weeks ago. At least he thought. It had been pretty hard to keep time since Blue had powered down, but what Lance had gathered was that the day's lasted around thirty-four hours. Seventeen hours of sun and seventeen hours of dark. And when the sun was out it was hot.

Like really fucking hot.

No more space suit for Lance unless he felt like baking to death. It was always above eighty-five degrees during the day and never below seventy at night. The sand got so hot in the sun that Lance would spend the hottest hours of the day sitting in the crystalline ocean, or up on one the huge roots of the trees. The scaly light gray bark peeled back to expose soft red-orange wood. Lance learned that if he dug far enough with a rock, it would expose veins and arteries filled with sweet yellow sap or fresh water.

That was how Lance discovered the first forms of life on the planet.

Closer to the shore, disgustingly slimy red eels would dig through the submerged trunks into the the trees vessels. Tiny brown creatures that looked like pins with legs also could be spotted drilling into the roots.

In the forever clear water, Lance found small reflective fish that had as many fins as centipedes had legs. There were flat marbled gray fish that swam slowly like stingrays. And larger but fast dappled white fish that looked like they had bony scales and tube shaped mouths.

Then there were the birds. Bats? Flying lizard-monster was probably the most accurate. The had narrow lime green bodies and whip like limbs connected by a thin vile looking green membrane that let them fly. Lance had never seen one’s face up close and he hoped to never have too.

Those three weeks had gone by and gone straight to Lance’s head. The loneliness was antagonizing. He had never talked to himself more. He never worried more. He'd never wanted to give up so much in his life.

He'd sit on the rocks and watch the sunset every day. That was one of the only things that felt real. It didn't even look much like an earth sunset. It was white hot and dull, providing little relief from the heat.

The ocean helped a little too. Although it was too shallow to swim in and tasted like bitter metal, it was water, it was still the same element he had been drawn to on earth. He spent a lot of time floating in the shallows, on his back, staring up at the few dark gray clouds that always lingered in the sky.

It was always too tempting to let his mind wander to the suffocating fears that plagued his thoughts.

If he would ever see his friends again.

If he would ever see his family again.

If he would ever see another human again.

There was no feeling in the world like being completely and utterly alone.

Lance did all he could to keep his mind off darker things. He sung the loudest most annoying pop songs he could think of. He drew his family's faces in the sand. He looked at the stars and wondered.

Just how far away was he from earth.

One humid sunrise three and a half weeks in, Lance woke up to the ground shaking beneath him. At first Lance thought it was earthquake. Planet-quake? Not an earthquake right?

Then something exploded or crashed or … Sonic boomed? Lance was too tired to think straight, but startled nonetheless. Nothing seemed to happen on this planet. It had rained all but once even though it was always humid, and the wind was never more than a sputtering breeze. The planet appeared to have no moons so the tides were pathetic as well. Not to mention the unsettling lack of noise that drove Lance partially insane until now.

Lance stumbled out of Blue with a sense of urgency, and saw thick gray smoke rising from the distance. He easily pulled himself up onto a root the same height as he was. It took no effort to leap from branch to branch with the low gravity. Lance liked it, it made him feel like a superhero, the way he could grab onto a branch and swing into the air like he was afraid of nothing. It was about the only thing he still like on the miserable planet.

He flew around a corner and onto an enormous pink boulder overlooking a small patch of beach next to a wall of roots.

Sunk halfway into the thick sand was the red lion, smoldering.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I say I'll post chapters quicker if I get a positive response, I mean every time I see a comment I get so excited that I go and immediately write like 500 words. Hence why this chapter is 4000+ words. This chapter is dedicated to my commenters you guys made my day!!!

The sound of fire crackling was foreign and violent to Lance’s ears. The Red lion was almost completely enveloped in thick black smoke, reeking of oil. Its front legs and most of its head were buried, like it tried to come out of a nose dive but couldn't stop.

Lance slid down the surface of the boulder, not caring when the jagged rock cut into the flesh of his hand. The sand was heating up, but Lance didn't care.

The Red lion was here. On this planet.

 _Keith_.

The machine suddenly cracked, and a hatch on the back popped open, releasing white steam like something out of a horror movie. A formless figure crawled out, masked by smoke and blinding, early sunlight. The figure pulled itself to stand on top of the ship. Then fell.

Lance took a panicked step forward, but stopped himself. Could this really be Keith. Here. Exactly where Lance happened to be in this infinitely large universe.

That was way too convenient.

The body rolled over, pulled off its helmet, and let out a disgusting sputtering cough. Lance would recognize that mullet anywhere.

 _Keith_.

In seconds Lance was skidding onto his knees next to Keith. His face was a perfectly painted picture of shock.

Keith took deep breath and opened his watery eyes. His brow furrowed.

Lance saw the silent word form on his lips.

 _Lance_?

It was like meeting a stranger he'd know his whole life. Lance just nodded slightly. There was nothing he could say that could begin to sum up anything right now. Keith found the words for him.

“Is this real?”

Lance felt like he could cry.

“Yeah,” he nodded, “It is.”

________

  
When Keith could finally stand again the first thing he did was rip of his armor and complain.

“It's so fucking hot.”

“Nice to see you too pal.”

Lance was cutting into a half buried root for water. Considering Keith had just survived a the impact of a plane crash, he was in pretty good shape. Then again, lions weren't exactly planes either.

Keith was covered from head to toe in deep purple bruises and a couple of light burn marks. His face was flecked by scratches from the broken glass of his visor.

“Where are we?” Keith muttered looking at the lightening sky as he discarded his jacket.

Lance bit his lip, “I don't really know. It's just a planet I landed on.”

“Figures.” Keith scoffed.

“You don't know either!” Lance got to his feet, “And what's with the nose dive straight into the ground!”

The embers of splintered branches still crackled behind Keith. There was silence, and Lance realized there was a very serious answer to that question.

“Red shut down about a week ago,” Keith began softly, “I had no choice but to go in the direction I was drifting.”

Lance had stopped moving, basically stopped breathing.

Keith's fists were clenched tight, “That's why it didn't feel real… when I saw you.”

He just barely laughed. “I floated halfway across the universe to, you. That… that's unbelievable.”

Lance couldn't believe he had never realized it before.

“Keith!” He jumped forward, startling Keith, “Do you think it could have been the lions?”

“What are you-”

“Think about it!” Lance interrupted him, “We were both floating right in the direction of this habitable planet. The lions must have brought us here because we could survive here until we get help!”

Lance grabbed Keith's shoulders, “The others could be headed here right now!”

His smile was deafening. Keith was reluctant to put it out. His eyes were squeezed shut with effort, _fear_.

“Lance… Life support lasts three weeks. Yesterday… I was sitting in that ship,” he took a deep, shaky breath, “Staring at my last ration of water. Thinking, tomorrow is the day I start to die.”

He started again, “The others…”

But Lance understood. If they were somewhere, it was not here. That's not what Lance had been struck by.

He felt Keith tremble under his hands. Only then did he feel Keith's prominent collar bone beneath his palms. Only then did Lance see his chapped lips and dry red eyes.

There was nothing. No feasible way to respond to what he just heard.

They stood there. Keith’s eyes hard on the ground, Lance completely dumbfounded, still with his hands tight on Keith's shoulders.

“Come on.” Lance whispered. He turned to walk to where he was cutting up the root. He sat down and waved Keith over when he saw that Keith hadn't moved. Reluctantly, Keith sat down on the other side of the scar Lance made in the wood. Then Lance stabbed his sharp rock into a green vein and pulled, making the root gush water.

“The sea water isn't salty but it tastes like metal.” Lance explained, “I usually just drink this.”

He cupped his hands and brought the liquid to his lips and watched Keith do the same.

They were quiet again as Lance let Keith drink his fill. Keith broke the silence first.

“How long have you been here.”

Water flooded out of the crack and over their hands, down the grooves of the bark.

“I think about three and a half weeks in earth time. The days are a lot longer here…. A lot of things are different here. I don't know if you noticed but the gravity’s a lot lower and there’s a lot more oxygen in the air so it's kind of like being a superhero!”

And with that Lance launched into a complete description of their new world, gazing up at the leaves, shimmering in the daylight.

That's where Keith woke up the next day… the same day? Seventeen hour days were confusing as hell. It looked like it could still be a few hours till sunset… Maybe? Lance would know. Keith forced his sore body to sit up. Where was Lance?

Keith jumped off the branch a little too forcefully, and went flying. Low gravity was confusing as hell too. He heard smug laughter in the distance.

 _Found Lance_. Keith thought miserably.

Feet sunk into the sand next to his face. He looked up and saw Lance bent over clutching his stomach, howling.

“Haha very funny,” Keith groaned, “Now help me up you little shit.”

Lance whipped away a tear and held a hand out, which Keith begrudgingly accepted. If Lance thought he was going to let this slide, he had another thing coming.

“Not used to the gravity yet ay, Keith?” Lance grinned as Keith grabbed his hand. Keith promptly yanked Lance down into the sand with him, right onto his face.

“I don't know. Seems like it might take a while to get used to.” He chuckled.

Lance spat out some sand at Keith, as he sat up, “Touché.”

Lance’s bare body was covered in sand. He had obviously been swimming. When he stood up, he leaned over Keith and brushed the sand of his abs..

 _Abs_? Keith did a double take. Never had he seen this kid train, work out, or even like, go for a run, and he just happened to have a modestly defined six-pack. Keith worked hard for his. This was totally unfair.

...And Keith was staring. ….And Lance saw him staring. Great. Perfect.

“Like what you see?” Lance struck an overly dramatic pose.

Keith was still lying on the ground. “No I'm just confused.” He deadpanned.

“Sexually confused?” Lance had the most infuriating smirk he'd ever laid eyes on.

“Dear God,” His hand flew reflexively to the bridge of his nose, “No. How the hell do you have a six-pack? I haven't seen you work out _once_.”

More posing ensued, “That's my secret.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “Bullshit. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it.”

“Ok fine,” Lance was so predictable, “I swim. I spent every summer in Cuba with my extended family! It's about as hot in Cuba as it is here, so though only reasonable thing to do was to swim. I guess I got pretty good at it.” He shrugged, but was clearly pretty proud.

It was kind of endearing watching Lance talk about his passions, just because he got so excited.

“Can you actually help me up now?”

Keith didn't understand how someone's smile could be so genuine. And how Lance trusted him not to pull him down again. Fortunately for Lance, Keith was feeling… generous.

Not really generous though. The second he was on his feet he shook his sandy hair out, right in Lance’s face.

“Ew dude! Gross! What are you a dog? Keep your mullet sand away from me!”

He pranced back to the water and dove… okay, belly flopped, back into the ocean. Keith didn't give chase, which Lance didn't seem to notice. Once he did, Keith walked to the edge of the water and called out, “So what do you usually eat around here?”

“Oh right!” He heard Lance say to himself. He came splashing towards Keith and made sure to toss water at Keith on his way by. When Lance got back to crack he made he made earlier he was unfazed when he saw that it had almost healed over completely. However, Keith was perplexed.

“Where'd that hole go? It was there, a couple hours ago.”

“First of all,” Lance sat up from his work, “You slept for way more than a couple hours.”

“Really? It's so hard to tell when the days are so long.”

Lance shrugged, “You get used to it. Secondly, the vines heal really fast. You have to make new cracks all the time, but I don't really mind. As long as the plants are doing fine.”

Keith craned his neck to try to see the top of the sky-high tree. “Is this one huge tree?”

The tree started oozing from Lance’s digging again, but this time it was thick and lime colored. “I don't know. It could be. I think it's a bunch of vines trying to get the highest to, you know, get sunlight or something. But they must also help each other out so they can heal quickly and stuff.”

“That would be pretty cool.” Keith spotted a large patch of the oddly colored flowers. His stomach growled.

“So what exactly _do_  you eat here?”

Lance twirled some of the sap onto his finger, “This.” He popped his finger into his mouth.

Keith poked at it suspiciously. That color yellow was sometimes the color of toxic waste. Lance rolled his eyes, “Dude I am literally eating it right in front of you.” He leaned forward with his trademark smirk, “Scared?”

Keith glared back, but stuck some in his mouth anyway.

“Hmm. Kinda tastes vegetable soup.”

“Really? I think it tastes like raw maple syrup?” Lance commented.

“What does that taste like?”

“Like, if maple syrup had way less sugar.”

Keith looked confused, “But maple syrup only tastes like sugar?”

“Whatever, it tastes like this!” Lance waved his finger in Keith's face, scowling.

After Keith spent a solid minute glaring back he asked, “Is this all you've been eating?”

“No, I had some rations left, but I only have like one left now.” Lance licked his fingers.

Keith's eyebrows furrowed, “So are there any animals we can… hunt?”

It was very concerning when Lance shuddered.

“What?” Keith asked cautiously.

“Sorry It's just the first thing I thought of was the… Bats…”

“Bats.” Keith repeated.

“Okay. Not really bats. If bats were reptiles than yes, bats.”

Keith still looked concerned, “Is that the only thing on this planet?”

“No, there are fish and bugs too.”

“Well, I'm not eating bugs so let's try fishing.” Panicked Keith.

“Good plan.” Surprisingly, his comment was sincere.

They walked over to the shoreline after getting all the sap off their hands. Lance walked straight in, toward a tide pool created by a root curling into the ground. Still wearing his shoes, Keith stood just an inch beyond the reach of the dormant waves.

Lance beckoned Keith over. Grumbling, Keith took his shoes off and rolled his pants up. Keith waded in slowly to where Lance was standing. The tide reached just above his knees. It was a very nice temperature compared to the sun soaked beach.

Keith leaned over the seemingly empty tide pool.

“So you brought me out here to show me nothing.” He droned.

Lance narrowed his eyes, “Do you have something against the ocean.”

“No…. I just didn't feel like getting my clothes wet. It's uncomfortable.”

Raising an eyebrow Lance gestured at his soaked pants that he had cut off above his knees.

“Whatever.” Keith mumbled.

Suddenly, Lance’s arm shot out, “There!”

There was a clusters of shiny silvery things near the end of lances finger. Keith leaned over and saw the small fish’s fluttering fins.

The look of disgust on Keith's face was comical.

“There's no way I'd eat that. That's basically a bug it just live in water.”

A few more similar fish swam into view. Lance went out further looking for something else. The ground dropped down a couple more inches so the water meet the edges of Lance’s shorts. Little green shoots slide in between Keith's toes as he waded out to join Lance. It was very confusing when Lance dunked his head under the water. He reemerged with several quartz-looking rocks in his palm. Then he chucked them toward the open sea.

“Why did you-” Keith started, but his question was answered when he spotted something large and tan swimming smoothly towards them. There were a bunch actually. They looked like stingrays without tails, but they were cream colored and corned in brown and white dapples. Keith stepped towards Lance to make way for a particularly large one. At least they weren't very fast.

“What are they?” Keith was entranced by their wave like movements.

“Keith, I am just as new to this planet as you are buddy.” Lance put a hand on his shoulder.

Absentmindedly, Keith discarded Lance hand from his shoulder while he watched another one go by. As much as Keith liked them, they were probably going to one of the only viable sources of protein on this planet.

“Should we try to catch on?” Keith suggested.

“Why not?” Shrugged Lance. His hair was still dripping into his eyes.

They just stood there for a second, Lance considering their options, when Keith apparently decided to just go for it. His hands shoot down and grabbed the slowing moving fish. With a splash he pulled it above the surface, and screamed when it started thrashing. _Violently_.

The fish was almost two feet long and a lot stronger than it looked, because Keith fell backwards trying to hold on to the stupid thing.

Lance didn't know whether to laugh or scream. He settled for both.

“Keith what the hell was that!” He howled, “Have you ever even seen a fish before!”

Scowling, Keith got up, his hair plastered to his face. “Their slow! It didn't seem like it'd be that hard to just grab one! It's not impossible!” He yelled back.

“Fish don't like being taken out of the water, genius. Typical. You act without thinking.” He flicked a piece of wet hair off Keith's forehead. Keith did _not_  appreciate his mockery.

“Anyway, I have a much better idea. Come on.” Before Keith could make another comment, Lance was halfway to shore. Keith settled for grumbling to himself as he whipped off his sodden shirt. While Keith found a spot for his shirt to dry, Lance climbed up a root toward the the densest part of the cluster of vines. Keith joined him a minute later.

“So what's your plan?” Keith folded his arms against his chested.

“See those branches over there?” Lance pointed to a cluster about thirty feet above them. The leaves were unsettlingly still.

“Yeah and?”

The snappy comment didn't phase Lance, “The wood in the vines is pretty soft, but it's probably stronger in the branches, so if we can get some of those, then we can probably make a spear, so we don't have to _grab_  the fish.” Lance’s shit-eating grin earned a middle finger from Keith.

“How do you propose we get up there?” Keith frowned.

“That's what I'm trying to figure out, there might be something we can use in Blue, I don't know if it's good idea to shoot them down, even if I could get a clean shot.”

“Why don't we just _shoot_  the fish!” Keith snapped.

“I don't want to, electrocute the water or disintegrate the fish or something. I don't know about you, but I don't really know exactly what those things are made of.”

“Let just use my sword.” Hissed Keith.

The way Lance clicked his tongue was obnoxious. “Keith, a sword and a spear are two very different things.”

Frustrated, Keith threw his arms open, “Who the hell cares, Lance!”

“Fine go plunge your magically powered fire sword into the ocean, see if I care!” Lance sneered.

Damn it. He hated when Lance had a point.

Lance went on to himself, “Hmm, there might even be so lower branches over by Blue.”

While he was rambling, Keith jumped down to the beach, scouting the rocks that littered the landscape. Most were too smooth to be of any use. When he had managed to collect enough larger, sharper rocks, he bounded back over to Lance.

Keith walked right past him, and threw two spearheaded rocks at Lance’s feet. He had two in his hands as well.

When Lance finally ceased his conversation with himself he asked Keith, “What are you doing?”

“It's pretty easy to cut through the bark and wood right?”

“Yeah…” Lance replied, “But what does that have to do with-”

Keith cut him off, “We need the branches up there. I'm going up.”

With that, he stabbed his rocks through the skin of the tree. It wasn't to hard to pull himself up thanks to the gravity. He reached up further and used the cavalries he made as foot holds.

“Oh.” Said Lance. He looked down at the rocks at his feet, “Ooh!”

He grabbed them and dug them into the marks Keith had made. Still feeling sore from bruises, Keith climbed slower than Lance would have expected, and he was soon right under Keith's feet.

“You better not fall idiot.” Lance grumbled.

“You… better watch yourself.” Smirking, Keith ground his foot in the notch it was in, causing soft tawny splinters to rain down on Lance.

“Aw dude!” He shrieked, now only holding on with one hand to wipe the splinters off his face.

“Stop complaining, we're almost there.” Keith craned his neck up.

“I wasn't complaining.” Complained Lance.

Soon enough Keith stepped down onto the branch, as wide as a road. He walked across it without a second thought. Lance dropped down a moment later, not nearly as confident as Keith. Lance took a few uneasy steps toward the edge, looked down, and shivered. That was not exactly a short distance.

Keith walked exactly as if he'd done this a million times before. Lance tiptoed along a couple yards behind him. The vine narrowed quickly, but Keith walked on, only a little slower. He stopped and gazed at the canopy above him. Then, expertly pulled out his bayard and sliced off a row of branches, hearing them hit the ground and splinter. Swiping his bayard back into place on his belt, he made his way back to a very tense Lance.

Keith grinned, “Scared?”

“No!” Lance retorted immediately, “I-I'm just not the best at balancing so I stayed over here!”

“Whatever.” Keith walked around Lance to collect his stones. Too Lance’s surprise, he started to climb up again.

“Uh, what are you doing?” Lance asked.

“I'm going to go take a look up there. You don't have to come.”

“Oh I'm coming!” Lance said with purpose.

Smirking, Keith shrugged, “Whatever floats your boat.”

It was a long way to the top, but not as long as if it had been with earth’s gravity and oxygen levels. As they passed enormous clumps of leafy branches it got easier to see how far it was to the top. Lance could tell the sun would starting setting before they reached the ground again. Keith was still seemed to be having a bit of a tough time with the climb, even though he was the one who suggested it. Being in a crash would leave anyone in a bit of a tough spot.

The branches splayed above them and Keith finally pulled himself into an outcrop between a couple branches. Lance was close behind. Despite the height, it was actually very pleasant up there. There was a real breeze, even though it wasn't very strong, and it was a few degrees cooler than the ground was.

Lance stepped up beside Keith. The second he looked in the direction Keith was looking, his jaw dropped. Below a canopy of shimmer leaves dotted with reflective flowers, was the the distant teal  
sea. The sea, filled with branches twisting over monster sized pink boulders, forming a bridge for the gods, to an exact replica island they were on, but twice the size

All of it was bathed in the warm yellow light of the early setting sun. Lance looked over at Keith and saw that their expressions matched perfectly. The vines on the island were tied together so uniformly, it formed the exact structure of a tree, unlike the mangled ball of vines they were currently standing on. Even though the colors were muted by distance, Lance could make out shards of jagged, coral colored rock forming cliffs and jetties. And to top it off the same vibrant coral rocks were woven into the structure of the tree. It was like jewelry for a god.

Keith sat down, vaguely exhausted, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the complex scene before him. Lance followed suit. There was plenty of room for both of them, considering the branches were still thicker than people.

Finally, Keith spoke, “How come you didn't tell me about this.” His voice sounded lost.

Even though neither looked at the other Lance shook his head, “Didn't know.” He replied.

“How did you miss _that_.” Keith finally tore his eyes away to look at Lance. He was surprised by the way Lance’s eyes looked in the sunlight, when they meet his.

“I came from that direction.” He pointed in the direction opposite the island. “I walked for hours in Blue, til I even reached this island. How come you didn't see it! You practically fell right on top of it!”

Keith's eyes widen, “About that…” He reached to scratch the back of his head. Lance looked concerned.

“Um… when I crashed here… I wasn't exactly inside my lion the whole time.”

If Lance had a drink he was sure he would have done a spit take, “What!” He shrieked.

“When I was drifting through space… I wasn't exactly right on course for this planet. But my engines were long dead… So I improvised.”

Lance’s look said “go on”.

“I got out of the ship and made a course adjustment with just me and my jetpack. It just took longer than I thought to get back in. By the time I was inside and had my seatbelt on, I had almost already hit the ground.”

If Lance wasn't gaping before, he was now. “You're insane.” He couldn't look away from Keith. Just what was this kid. He got out of his spaceship during landing and climbed a hundred plus feet then acted like it was no big deal.

“Yeah well I think you might be missing a few marbles yourself.” Keith snorted back.

He looked back at the sunset grumpily.

“You know Keith I'm actually really glad you're here.” Whispered Lance.

Keith shot a puzzled look at Lance, an unknown question forming on his lips. But Lance went on.

“I was sitting here feeling like I'd never see another person again, not knowing if any of you were dead or alive. But now you're here. So I can have even the slightest hope that anyone else is alive, and it might be true… because you lived too.” Lance’s lower lip was quivering.

Enough time passed that Keith thought he was finished.

“I can't stand being alone,” He admitted meekly, “It's… torture. It's like being suffocated.” Lance pulled his knees to his chest and leaned his head against the ancient bark.

Keith was overwhelmed. He didn't understand at all. But he also sort of did.

He understood the feeling. Just not in the same way. Knowing your own death was coming, provided a sense of terror more raw than anything Keith had ever experienced. He remembered the feeling of his throat constricting, his fingers grasping at nothing, covered in cold sweat when his body felt so hot. He remembered feeling like he couldn't breath, like his eyes were going to pop out of his head. Like he was underwater.  _Like he was suffocating._

But Keith didn't have anyone to worry about or anyone to worry about him, not in the way Lance did. But now he did. Lance cared. It was a really new feeling for Keith.

 _Family_. The word Lance always used. The feeling.

All his life Keith had been on a rotisserie wheel of foster homes, that all showed varying degrees of sympathy for him. Never love though. Not like families were supposed too.

Keith felt like he was supposed do something… comforting. His hand clamped down on of Lance’s knee.

“You're not alone anymore.” A sincere smile found it's way to Keith’s lips.

Lance rolled in his lips, seemingly holding back a wave a gratitude. It didn't matter to Keith. Content with Lance’s change in attitude, he leaned back against his own branch, stretching his legs so their feet just barely touched. The sky caught his attention again. The sun still lingered on the edge of the horizon, but stars were fading into view.

“I missed the stars.” Lance smiled warmly.

Keith blinked at him, “We're in space like… all the time.”

“I missed looking at them from the ground… It's so bright on earth, it's hard to see them anymore.”

Keith let the silence speak for him.

The next time Lance spoke it was barely audible, “Sometimes the brightest stars are right under your nose.”

Lance’s sights were still set firmly on the fading sky. Keith's eyes were burning a hole in Lance’s skull.

Keith knew he meant earth. Earth had never felt like home to Keith. But somehow he knew exactly what Lance meant.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you guys want to ask questions or whant me to reply to a comment just ask. I usually don't respond to comments, but I can assure all of you I read them like five or six times each. Stay tuned for eventual romance and agnst!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was a slow update for me. Sorry about that. I've been having a bit of a tough time lately so it really means the world to me to see all your nice comments! Turns out writing five thousand words is pretty easy (whoops). Enjoy!

All of this would probably be a lot less awkward if they weren't both shirtless.

For starters Keith had woken up with his head on Lance’s arm, even though he had fallen asleep on the other side of the damn tree. Which, now that he thought about it was probably not the best place to fall asleep in the first place.

Keith had managed to get around Lance without waking him up, and sat on the other side of outcrop. It was still dark. Keith didn't know how long he'd been asleep, or if Lance had adapted to sleeping the whole seventeen hour night.

He could have climbed down, but Lance might have freaked out, or worried about where Keith was.

It wasn't all that bad sitting up there anyways. The view was still nice even in at night. Stars seemed to illuminate the flowers in the branches even more than the sun did. There was something about the petals that Keith couldn't put his finger on. Their color was just… confusing.

But Keith quickly grew tired of sitting around in the dark and wished Lance would just wake up. Turned out Keith must have been much more tired than he assumed because the sky lightened in the distance. It was barely noticeable, but for Keith who had been staring at the same scene for a while, it was obvious.

And with the sunrise came the birds. Keith soon found out that Lance was right. They looked more like reptilian bats are than anything.

Unfortunately, with Lances description, Keith was not fully prepared for their overwhelming monstrosity. The branches branches rattle above him. He didn't realize then but the… things, were well camouflaged. He _did_ realize when one landed on a branch three feet from his face.

He screamed. And immediately sprang as far away as possible from the beast, right into Lance.

Lance also screamed, “What the hell! Keith! Get off me! Fuck!”

Keith's elbow made contact Lance’s jaw. He was logged in between two branches on top of Lance like a spider.

Keith was still shrieking, “What. Is. _That_.”

While he was visibly disgusted Lance kept his cool, “That's one of the bats I was telling you about.” He shuddered, “I've just never seen one this close.

Grotesque didn't begin to cover it. It looked like a pterodactyl with a body like a worm’s. It's wings were see-through bubbles of mucus green membrane, and it's jaw looked like a bone saw stitched to a rat skull. Beady black eyes jerked widely around in its bulging eyes sockets. Not to mention its whip like tail was equipped with two spikes dripping a vile pus.

Panicking, Keith hurled a branch at the beast. When it flew past the monsters head it focused its eyes on Keith, and dropped its lower jaw sticking out its putrid pine cone shaped tongue in a silent scream.

It launched itself off the branch with a few soundless beats of its wings.

Keith's heavy breathing was the only sound.

“That,” Keith gasped, “Was the most unsettling this I've ever seen.” He looked down a a wide eyed Lance.

“Agreed.” Lance shivered, “Now could you get your ass off me?”

Looking down, Keith realized he was perched above on Lance's face, and his ass was quite literally on top of him. His cheeks reddened a shade. This was the part where it was awkward that they were shirtless.

Keith used the branches to vault over Lance’s legs.

“Man you just all over me lately.” Lance put on his best flirty grin.

Keith prolonged his eye roll for an unnecessary amount of time, when Lance finally got up and stretched.

“Well that was… an experience. But I'm think I'm ready to get down.” His hand settled on his hip, “You up for the climb?”

Keith groaned and looked at the ground. He was still groggy and stiff from sleep.

“I guess.” He looked warily at the distant sand.

Lance’s eyes scanned the ledger for the stones they used to get up there.

“Uh, hey Keith? Where'd you put those rocks?”

“What do you mean?” Yawned Keith.

“I mean those rocks we used to get up here? Our only means of getting down? Where are they?”

They shared a brief look of panic before the arguing began.

Keith's eyes eyes popped out of his head, “Are you saying you _lost_  are only way down?”

“Me!” Lance yelped, “Where are yours?”

The two boys dropped to their knees, bickering as they searched.

“Aha!” Keith sprang to his feet, wobbling on his foothold. In his hand, he held a single jagged stone.

“Where are the the rest!” Shrieked Lance.

“I don't know. This one was hooked in the bark.” Keith shrugged.

The height didn't deter Lance from being dramatically frantic. “How are we supposed to get down with one fucking rock!” His loud voice scared monsters from their nests, and they went scattering from the branches around him.

Leaning past their platform, Keith surveyed the winding branches that twirled toward the center of the structure. The next second he drew his sword, grabbing it around the middle, and tossing it in his hand.

The ever so slight smirk on Keith's lips was a horrible warning sign.

“Like this.” And Keith jumped. Lance’s jaw dropped.

“Keith!” He screamed after him.

The edge of Keith's blade sliced a smooth line down the center of the vine, as he went rushing down the slope of the branch. His bare feet were torn up by the deep grooves of the trunk. The vine curved to parallel with the ground, the, still high above the sand.

Keith ripped his sword from the wood, drawing thick sap out with it. His sword dripped a mixture of red blood and yellow sap. Keith's hand bore a gash across it where he gripped the swords blade to tightly.

A shrill yell came down from where Lance was fumbling, “Are you okay!”

Keith cupped his hands around his mouth, “Yeah! … Mostly.” He said quieter.

“What I am supposed to do now that jump jump off the fucking _tree_!” Lance screamed back.

Well Keith thought it was obvious but, “Just do what I did with the rock!”

“What!” Without hesitation Lance slipped and fell backwards onto hands. He gritted his teeth, staring wide eyed at the stone, like it was a bomb. Lance examined the rock in his hands, how exactly was he supposed to do this? He peered over the edge of the outcrop where Keith was staring back at him unamused.

Keith sighed, there was only one way to do this.

“Scared?” He taunted.

“Fuck you!” Hissed Lance. Cautiously, he slid the rock into the knot that Keith had made with his sword. With his body only half on the ledge, Lance finally went for it. He threw his body off the side, screaming.

Even Keith could tell his eyes were squeezed shut. Lance’s movements weren't nearly as confident as Keith's. His legs were shaking all over the place as he flew towards the exact spot where Keith was standing. He just barely jumped out of the way, when Lance went sailing past him, desperately clawing at the bark to slow himself down.

Keith walked over, obnoxiously smug, and twirled his sword in his bloody hand. The only sound was Lance’s breath coming in ragged pants.

He looked up at Keith with a strange form of fury in his startling blue eyes.

“You're insane!” He gasped. Finally getting to his feet, he grabbed Keith's bloody hand with a swipe.

“I mean look at this!” He shook Keith's hand in his own face, “Who just jumps of a ledge! Your hands and feet are drenched in blood.”

What startled Keith the most was how much a fuss Lance was making over him. He knew his bloody limbs, must look disgusting, but they had both seen worse.

“Lance I'm fine. And you're fine too, right?” Lance nodded, “See? No harm done.”

He clapped Lance on the shoulder with his non-blood drenched hand, and walked over to the massive tangle of branches behind them. Still, Lance looked grumpy. Keith swung his sword over his shoulder, considering their options.

Behind him, he could hear Lance apologizing to the tree for leaving a huge search on it. Keith snorted.

“You know the tree’s self-healing right?” He reminded Lance.

“Yeah!” Lance defended himself, “But how would like it if someone just left a huge scratch on your side!”

Again Keith snorted, “The tree can't hear you Lance.”

Lance crossed his arms, “It never hurts to be nice to nature.”

Keith dropped it, and walked toward the wall of vines it front of them. Just as he was about to jump up to get a better look, he heard Lance sighed moodily.

“What?” Groaned Keith.

“You're trailing blood everywhere!”

“I don't know about your feet, but I have something for your hand.” Lance began to search through his pockets, until he whipped out a thick strip of cloth.

“Here!” He handed it proudly to Keith, “You can tie it around your hand!” It's a strip of my pants that I kept just in case.”

As weird as that was, it was actually pretty handy. Keith began to struggle to tie it with his left hand. After a prolonged minute of no results, Lance sighed and grabbed Keith's hand.

He knotted it quickly and smirked at Keith.

“I can't tie something with one hand!” He defended.

Lance shrugged, still too content with himself.

Finally Keith leaped up the wall. On the other side, the spiral of vines was tangled around each other, making it difficult to see what lay ahead, but they both saw that all the vines vaguely sprouted from one point. They made a silent agreement to investigate.

But climbing through the vines was a process. Luckily, there were no leafy branches because there was not a very ample amount of sunlight, but it was also harder to see. Some vines were thinner and harder to squeeze through, and some were thicker than people, giant living skyscrapers sprouting from the spiral center.

After crawling through a particularly thick knot of branches, the two came upon what looked like a huge drain that the roots erupted from. There was a hole big enough for a person to slip down in the where the branches met.

Lance cast a suspicious glance at Keith, “You want to go down there don't you.”

Keith only shrugged, “Kind of. Especially if we can get out of here through there.”

“Okay…” Considered Lance, “But I see two problems with that. One it's pitch black down there, and two it could be like, a hundred or more foot drop.”

The way Keith perked up suggested he had an idea. He quickly sliced of a piece of bark next to him and dropped it into the cavern. Not a second later he heard a shallow splash.

“See,” Keith commented, “Not to far.”

“Okay… But it's still too dark.”

There seemed to be nothing to fix that problem. Keith decided the best solution was to stick his head in there and double check. That earned a sigh from Lance.

“Jesus Keith, you really are an idiot.”

“Wait,” Hissed Keith. He pointed somewhere in the cave that Lance couldn't see. “There's light coming from over there!”

When Keith came up Lance shifted uneasily on the balls of his heels.

“I'm still not so sure about this.”

“What's the worst that could happen.”

“Keith, if you’d ever seen a movie, you'd know that that is the worst thing you could say right now.”

Once again, Keith just jumped. Lance stifled his yelp with a terrified choking noise. All he heard was Keith smack into a puddle.

“Keith?” Lance called down nervously.

Thankfully, Keith's response came quickly, “It's fine, dumbass. It's not even that far of a jump. And I can see what looks like a way out.”

Lance sighed in relief, “Okay! I'm going to come down then so watch out.”

With a last apprehensive glance downward, Lance hung his feet over the edge. The things Keith made him do. He squeezed his eyes shut and let go.

Falling was a terrifying as usual. The worst part though was when it lasted longer than expected. And he hit the ground hard.

For a moment he was too dazed to move, shock shot through him like a bullet as his feet punched the wet sand. His eyes fluttered open to a single heavenly light shimmering down from above. He let his eyes adjust for a moment still barely able to see his hand wave in front of his face.

He made outa dark shape lying next to him, and kicked it. It groaned back.

“Keith what the hell.” Lance groaned back.

He heard Keith chuckle weakly, “Yeah I lied. That hurt like hell. But if I'm down here then I'm dragging you with me.”

“You son of bitch. I really hate you right now.” Lance grumbled. His body _hurt_.

“I can't even blame you. This was such a dumb idea.” Signed Keith.

“Ya think?” Lance pushed himself into a sitting position with significant effort.

“So where’s that exit you were talking about?” As Lance's eyes adjusted he noticed small gaps where shreds of light filtered in.

“About half way up to the left.”

Now Lance was really pissed. “Wow this is quite the shitstorm you've gotten us into.”

He could almost feel Keith shrug on the ground. Angrily, Lance picked up a stone next to his hand. Stupid rock. Stupid tree. Stupid cave. Stupid Keith.

He chucked the stone as hard as he could at the ceiling. And with a smack everything lit up.

It looked like a wave ignited the night sky above them, as dapples of dreamy blue lights flickered into view. Lance heard Keith push himself up. The little teal lights rained down from the roof lighting up tide pools and pink ominesant crystals. They were surrounded by the spitting imagine of a fairy’s rock garden.

Without thinking Lance reached out to touch one. It landed on his finger, no bigger than a fly. It felt fuzzy to the touch and a little sticky when Lance tried to flick it off.

His legs still felt stunned but he got up anyways. He looked down at Keith, who's hair was littered with shimmering specks. Lance giggled, “Get up, fairy boy.”

“Look who's talking _sparkles_.” Keith gestured to Lance’s own head. Ignoring him, Lance spin his eyes around in wonder. The dark puddles at his feet looked like mirrors sprinkled with the delicate lights, so gentle they didn't even disturb the water’s surface.

Above him, the dust was lodged in the grooves of the bark, like magic flowed through the veins of the tree. Something small splashed behind Lance and he inched around. He leaned over one of the bigger pools. Silky pitch black fish moved through the water like clockwork. Their fins draped them like robes, long and shimmering. One poked at the surface, catching a glowing speck in its mouth. String like whiskers decorated their face and fins.

Lance was so completely entranced, he didn't notice that Keith had finally joined him. Together they gazed back up at the ceiling. It almost looked like it was moving.

Scratch that. It was definitely moving. Clusters jumped off the roof onto the walls and back, flashing in the dark. Lance narrowed his eyes.

“Oh my God…” He whispered, “They're… those bat things but, their wings are covered in this… this moss.”

A mosaic of wings flowed before their eyes. In daylight monstrosities, in the dark, they mirrored the stars.

They could see the roots of the trees reaching from the ground around them, laced with constellations. Roots, tangled up in crystals, tangled in sand and water. It was so hard to take his eyes off anything Lance forgot why they were even here.

He grabbed Keith's wrist and lead him to the wall nearest the hole. They were careful though, to step around the tide pools and rocks. Something about the aura of this place felt sacred.

As much as Lance would love to spend hours marveling at this wonder, he could tell the lights were very slowly, starting to fade.

He and Keith started carefully searching the vines of the wall, parting the thinner ones to try and see outside. With no luck, Lance started searching for something else.

He found exactly what he was looking for; a deep tide pool that seemed to dip under the growths.

“Keith,” Lance called, “I think a tide pool like this could lead outside. I'm going to check, stay here for a minute.”

Instantly, Keith paled, “W-What!”

“I going to swim down there, but don't worry I'll come back before I go to far, so I won't drown.”

Keith audibly swallowed, he looked way to nervous for a guy who just jumped off, like two cliffs.

Lance waded into the pool with extreme caution, checking for the delicate fish as he went. When he was neck deep next to the vines, he mock saluted Keith, took a few deep breaths, and disappeared under the surface.

It was dark as expected, and much cooler than all the other bodies of water on the planet. He opens his eyes in rapid successions checking for signs of lights. He pushed along roots at he feet trying to move quickly as possible, telling himself with confidence that he could hold his breath a while longer. There was nothing but darkness and the feeling of sand, bark, and the resistance of water. Lance was about to turn around, bolt for it. Until  
His eyes flashed open and the water got lighter. Just a fraction.

Lance decided to go for it. Even though it made him feel like he couldn't move when he thought that maybe he had imagined it. Maybe the only thing ahead was deep dark water. His eyes shot open again.

He wanted so badly to take a breath of relief. Sunlight. His I lungs began to ache from strain. His body began to panic. Move. _Go_.

He saw it. The surface. Without thinking he launched himself upward, right into a solid roof. Water flooded his lungs where he expected air to be. In desperation his feet kicked forward, his hands reached up. He hit the real surface.

His head rushed with pressure as it broke the surface. His body heaved up water. He scrambled towards the shallows, reaching at the sand. Choking he dragged his tortured body out of the depths and onto the hot, forgiving sand. His eyes burned from strain. The world sounded delirious from his ears popping and popping.

That was a terrible idea.

He coughed out the remaining water in his lungs, making himself get up to knock more water out of his ears. Finally Lance could survey his surroundings. He looked at the ocean behind him.

The cavern lead further underground than he had thought and into the sea. His main focus right now was to find where he was relative to the lions, and find the hole in the roots where he could get to Keith.

First he clambered over a staircase of roots on his right and only found an unfamiliar labyrinth of gray vines. He scaled a root his left, and let out a sigh of relief when he saw the top of Blues back shining in the distance.

He turned back to the trunk studied the mass of branches in front of him. There was nothing. He went back to the maze on his right and hopped a few feet around a corner. About twenty feet up he saw a break in the structure. It looked pretty hard to get to with branches sticking up in obscure angles all around it. Lance decided he needed to get something from his lion before he could attempt to rescue Keith.

He returned with four sharp rocks and a rope. This could work. He used the method Keith had shown him the scale the wall, digging his rocks firmly into the wood to ensure there would be no repeat. Lance gazed into the darkness of the surreal cavern. The blue lights were all but gone and his eyes weren't adjusted well enough to see properly.

“Keith?” Called Lance.

Immediately Keith sighed, “Oh Jesus, I thought you were dead.”

Lance was genuinely confused, “Why would you think that?”

“Oh I don't know! You swam into the dark and mysterious abyss and didn't come back!” Keith yelled back.

“It went fine!” Lance lied. Well, it could have gone worse. “I don't think you could make it though unless you're secretly an even better swimmer than me.”

“I can promise you I'm not. Just get me out of here.”

Lance made sure to knot the rope firmly to a sturdy branch before he threw I down.

“Can you reach that?” He asked Keith.

“Yeah. I can climb up.”

Lance poked his head inside and looked down. He saw a blurry shape crawling up the end of the rope. It was a pretty good distance.

“Are you sure it's kinda far.” Lance squinted. Keith seemed to have climbed halfway up already.

Lance could see Keith's face, “I'm good.” He called.

Less than a minute later, Lance was helping pull Keith up into fresh air. The sunlight felt good on his skin.

They took no time getting down, relevied to be on the warm beach, together and safe.

“Where are we? Keith's hand blocked the sun from his eyes.

“Blues right over here.” Lance started toward the roots in the left and Keith followed. Once they reached the lion, Lance pranced inside and and tucked away his equipment. Keith noticed he now had his bayard on him.

“Your lion is… surprisingly well kept.” Commented Keith.

“Well, I feel bad that she shut down so I try to take good care of her.” Lance patted the outside of his robotic beast.

“Oh!” Keith remembered, “Where's my lion? I want to get those branches so we can eat something other than tree food-goo.”

Lance pointed past the huge root flanking Blue. “It's not far over there.”

Soon enough the boys had two nice sized fish sitting with sticks through their middles on the beach. Their sticky purple blood ran down the spears and stained the sand. The sun still stood high in the sky, casting down terrible heat waves into the bleached sand. Keith had managed to get a suitable campfire setup; minus the fire, while Lance dissected out the edible parts of the fish.

Keith perched on a rock he had set by his construction, staring at it like his gaze alone could set in on fire. Lance joined him on a similarly placed rock, holding pieces of fish on leaves like plates.

The meat was flaky and pink, still drizzled with violet blood. Lance set down preparations down in between their seats.

“So… The fire?” Lance prompted. Keith had two fingers pressed to lips.

Keith spoke in a muffled rage, “I don't have anything to start it.”

“What!” Yelled Lance, “Aren't you like, the guardian of fire?”

“That doesn't mean I know everything about fire! That's just a coincidence!” Keith hissed back.

Lance scowled at him. “How are we supposed to cook this now?”

Keith's brow just furrowed deep in aggressive thought. After a few minutes of Lance grumbling to himself, Keith sprang up and began to comb the edges of the beach. Assuming Keith gave up and walked away, Lance put on an even more displeased expression.

“Oh fine, just walk away. I'll figure something out.” He hissed.

Keith came back with a foggy looking pink rock and his pocket knife. Now Lance looked a little curious, but grumpy nonetheless. Keith knelt down over the contraption and struck the stone with his knife. Lance crept closer, hearing the harsh scrape of the stone. Keith's hand moved faster and Lance could have sworn he heard Keith yelp.

Already sweaty from heat, Keith was almost panting, laboring over the crystal. Finally sparks flew off his knife, as he tried to shred the rock. He tossed them aside stick his face into the twigs. Lance saw a wisp of smoke float from under Keith's figure. A faint crackling sounded and Keith leaned back to wipe sweat of his face. Lance crouched down next to him and peered through the twigs at smoking embers Keith had created. They caught slowly but surely onto the kindling.

Keith shook blood off his finger tips. Sweat drenched the ends of his hair stuck to his face.

“Where'd you learn to do that?” Lance was still bent over the pile of barely smoldering wood chips.

“It's cold as hell in Vermont in winter.” He stuck his bleeding fingers in his mouth.

Lance’s expression questioned him.

“I used to run away from orphanages and foster houses all the time. I did it in the middle of winter when I was living in Vermont. It was so cold, but I couldn't find any flint so I used quartz.” He tossed the crystal at Lance who caught and examined it.

Lance was quiet for a moment before he decided to ask, “And you just happened to have a knife on you?”

Of course Lance would ask that first. “Yeah, I ended up needing one a lot so I took it from one of my foster homes pretty early on.” He shrugged like that was the most normal thing in the world.

Lance looked startled, “Why would an orphaned kid need a knife?”

Keith gave a half-hearted smirk. “It's not always easy on the streets, no matter how pathetic you are. People like me were desperate, that was how you lived in the city at least.”

“Why didn't you stay with any of your foster families?” Lance peeped.

An unknown emotion flashed trough Keith eyes, “I didn't want to stay.”

Lance rolled his eyes, “You're telling me you'd rather live on the streets defending yourself from hobos, than sit in a warm house?” He gave Keith the patronizing parent look.

“Foster families aren't always that nice.”

“Maybe…” Shrugged Lance,I know no family's perfect, but they must have wanted you to stay, I mean the foster families. I know the orphanages would have wanted you to get adopted.” He added.

Keith's eyes narrowed. “They didn't want me,” He growled suddenly, “Sometimes I even heard them say it. I'd hide around a lot. They'd say I was weird, creepy even. I rarely talked, I didn't really get along well with other kids either. It's not like anyone really taught me how.” Keith stared at the growing blaze.

Lance glared at the sand, “W-why wouldn't they teach you! it's their job to take care of kids!”

“They always just assumed someone else taught me. Or that I was just like that.. They didn't care.” The way Keith seemed to just accept that was unfair.

“No way.” Lance clenched his fists.

Keith didn't know what Lance was denying. That was a fact he had learned too early in life.

“Why would...” Lance struggled for the words to voice the growing frustration building inside him. “Did you give _them_ a chance to? To try?” He felt bad after saying it. But it was the only thing Lance could think to say.

Keith's body immediately lurched. He hissed through his teeth, “What do you mean. They didn't care about me. No one wanted me! That's why I've been an orphan my whole damn life! So I left! I'm not going to burden others!” He fought not to yell, but was not doing a very good job.

“That's not what I meant.” Lance gritted his teeth, “The Keith I know… H-He isn't a burden. It doesn't matter if you come across wrong to people at first. They'd learn to like you.”

Lance’s underlying hope in everyone made him _so_ mad. It really, really shouldn't but it just did. “Not everyone is as accepting as you are.” Fuck he just complimented Lance. “God forbid, if they found out I was gay they'd just throw me out anyways!” He spat.

The silence couldn't end soon enough, and Keith just kept turning over the rage and regret in his head. He hadn't meant to tell Lance all that and yet here they were and he was furious. At himself, at Lance for not saying anything, at their stupid predicament, at everything.

Keith couldn't take it. He sprang up and stormed off like a wraith. The adrenaline rushing through him made it even easier to fly over obstacles. Lance watched him go with an expression of bewilderment.

His heels slammed into the ground, spraying sand everywhere. Under the shade a of couple long hanging branches, Keith chucked his sword at the base of the tree. He took great satisfaction in wrenching it out, drawing it's blood onto the soil. Slamming his sword into the sand, Keith stared out at the vast calm ocean.

A while later, Lance's head popped up from behind a wall of roots. Keith didn't notice. He taken to sitting next to the inanimate shoreline. Lance tiptoed over across the roots still out of sight of Keith. Just when he was about to call out to Keith, he spoke.

“I know you're there.”

That was Lance’s queue to awkwardly sit down next to Keith. Lucky for him, he came prepared. He presented Keith with a leaf-plate of seafood. To his surprise Keith accepted it without resistance. Lance brought his own food too. They tried it together. It was light and flaky like cod but tasted sweet like scallops.

“I don't care that you're gay.” Lance chanced speaking, “I'm not exactly… straight either.” He mumbled.

Now Keith looked perplexed.

“I'm mean sure, a flirt with a lot of girls, but… I like guys too. It was just always better for my image if I stuck to girls.

Keith made no comment but visibly relaxed.

“I'll be here for you Keith. No matter what. We all will.” That was more than Keith had ever been promised in his life. And it was more than enough for him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to make the next update quicker. Kudos are always appreciated!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I have to stop updating at weird times) I've fallen into that pattern of "each chapter I write is significantly longer than the last" and I'm not sure if I can keep it up. I'm happy to say this chapter is 80% fluff. Enjoy!

As the days went by Keith grew more and more familiar with his surroundings. The best places to spend the hottest and most grueling hours of the day. Where the flat, sandy colored fish grazed, and where their better tasting gray relatives hide amongst the roots. The best places to catch a breeze. How to avoid Lance, and how to find him, at any given time.

The irregular shift of the days and nights became customary. As did the intense, skin peeling sunburns that Lance never seemed to get. Keith looked like a peeled tomato while Lance just looked like a well-done version of himself. Lance didn't even try to avoid the sun. He spent almost all his time in the water, where little to no shade was provided.

Most of the time Keith took to sitting under his lion to get any decent protection from the sun. Sunscreen should really be included in life support packs.

His skin felt dry and tight on his face. It was a miracle the sun didn't shrivel up any life form it came in contact with. Not to mention any sand in direct sunlight could leave blisters on skin. Keith had learned that the hard way, after watching Lance learn it the hard way for what was probably the millionth time.

They spent most of their time in the outcropping between two towering twisted roots, where the red lion was still concealed in sand. Lance didn't mind not being able to check on his frequently, like Keith did.

The low hang branches provide better cover here than anywhere else on the island. It was usually cooler, and the sand only occasionally left scars on their feet.

Keith carved away at a stick to add to his growing pile of spears, that was diminished at an equally rate because of Lance’s tendency to break them. Constantly.

“Hey Keith!” Lance called from across the beach, “Quit  _lion_  around and come help me over here.” Lance’s giggle was audible even from across the shore.

Keith just rolled his eyes and tried to ignore Lance, and the tiny upwards curve of lips.

“You have to help me or it'll be a _cat_ -tastrophe.” Lance chuckled.

That time Keith groaned. It was only going to get worse. He went over to Lance with crossed arms.

“Wow that was original. How long have you been holding onto that one?”

“About a week.” Lance said like he was proud.

Keith scoffed, “Do you even need me?”

“Of course! It's all right, _meow_.” Cackled Lance.

Sighing, Keith spun around on his heels and started back towards his lion, mostly to hide his own forming grin.

“No wait!” Lance shouted, still smiling, “I really do need your help.”

Keith turned back around, managing to get his deadpan mask back on in time.

“You get to help me fish cause I always fish, and cook. All you do is hide in the shade, make spears, and jack up your homemade training dummies.”

“You'd stay in the shade to if you had skin like mine.” Frowned Keith, gesturing to his pink face.

Lance could repress his smirk, “Whatever just come help me tomato-face.”

Lance fished most of the time because, simply put, he was much better at it. He was in his element, moving like a shadow through the still water. He never scared the fish. And he _never_ missed. It was almost scary. The fish he retrieved were always speared right through the middle.

Keith's aim was good, but in the water… Not so much. The sun never seemed to want to work with him. Just when he'd get close enough to strike, his shadow would on the fish and it would bolt. Lance easily caught enough for two days worth of meals, where as Keith had only a meager two. At least he didn't break as many spears as Lance.

Keith slammed his empty spear into the nearest branch and sat down next to it, glaring at the water. Startled Lance wadded over through the waist deep sea.

Picking wet strands of hair off his face, he growled at Lance, “How come you're so good at this?”

Lance sat next to him, “I've had a lot more practice than you, you've done this like twice.”

“It's been more than twice!” Keith interjected.

“Ok maybe,” Lance dismissed, “But you move like you've never seen an ocean before.” Lance jumped to his feet.

“You have to be one with with the sea!” He let himself fall into a back-flop, sending water flying.

Keith scrunched up his face and whipped the droplets off, “What's that supposed to mean?”

Unsurprisingly, Lance just shrugged, “You just gotta know how the water works.” He floated peacefully on his back.

With his eyes still closed he beckoned Keith over, “Why don't you just try this?”

“Floating?” He made it sound impossible.

Lance cracked an eye open, “Yeah. It's relaxing.”

There was no movement from Keith, “I don't think I can do that.”

“What?” Lance pushed his head up, “You mean you've never done this before?”

Keith suddenly looked very uncomfortable, “I… I don't know how to swim.” He confessed into his knees.

Lance sprang up, “What! Why didn't you tell me!” His voice didn't sound angry or superior like Keith had expected.

“I can teach you!” Grinned Lance.

Keith felt utterly bewildered. He'd expected to be mocked or at the very least teased. But Lance just looked… excited and maybe even proud. Proud he could do something that Keith couldn't probably.

Lance was rambling, “The water’s not very deep, which isn't the best for learning to tread water, but I guess it's good cause you can't drown. Not that I think you'd drown. I mean you probably know how to swim from like survival instinct or whatever but there are some better ways to do things that you might not know.”

Having tuned in late, Keith just looked lost , so Lance waved him over again. Keith pulled off his miraculously dry shirt.

“Pfft.” Lance laughed, “You have a trucker tan.” He pointed at Keith's mismatched arms.

Keith's blush disappeared into the color of his face, “Shut up, spray tan. Are you going to teach me to swim or what?”

Lance showed him everything he could think of as the sun sailed closer to the horizon. Just as Lance assumed, Keith wasn't a bad swimmer he just didn't know how to swim effectively. But by the time it was nearing dusk Keith knew enough to survive the average beach day.

“This is my favorite part.” Lance grinned, “Just let your body go and breath.”

Keith stared up at the light sky, limbs splayed in the water. Gentle waves lapped at his ears, threatening to spill across his face. He took a deep breath. And another. Lance’s fingertips brushed against the small of his back for reassurance. As he breathed out his body bobbed slightly and he panicked. Lance’s hands caught him and he let his arms still.

“Sorry.” Keith bit his lip.

Lance didn't look the least bit deterred. His smile was gentle. “It's fine.” He looked up at the first forming stars, “My dad used to do this for me when I was learning gro float. It's supposed to be relaxing, but not if you feel like you're going to drown. This way you don't have to worry about it.”

Keith let his breath go again, and Lance’s hand was there. He closed his eyes. It was peaceful when he didn't feel like he was drowning.

  
___

The fire crackled at their feet as they ate their fresh fish. The two had taken to staying up past dark when it was cooler. And for stargazing.

The difference between two skies was breathtaking. There was no light pollution, no cities, and no electricity to block the millions of stars from view. Only the occasional sparks that rose from their own fire.

Lance was still soaking, water drops dripped down stray strands of hair into his meal. Keith cooked, so Lance spent his extra time doing his favorite thing; swimming.

“So how come you never learned to swim?” Lance wiped a water drop off his nose.

“Same reason I never learned how to get along.”

Immediately Lance’s eyes widened. That had gone in an unexpected direction. They didn't talk about… That.

“Joking.” Smirked Keith, “I always lived in cities or apartments. And during the rare times where I lived at a house they just never happened to have a pool. I was never really interested either. So I never learned.” He took another huge bite of fish.

“Did you ever go to the beach?” Lance asked.

Keith shrugged, “No. I barely even saw the ocean. On earth.” He added sourly.

Another urgent idea popped into Lance’s head.

“You've never made a sand castle then have you?” He shouted through a mouthful.

Keith's brows furrowed, “No? But why is that important?”

Lance seemed way to excited for Keith's taste, “Because! It's like the trademark thing to do at the beach. Especially when you're a kid.”

That only confused Keith more, “But we're not kids anymore.”

“That's exactly why we have to do it now!” Lance’s beaming smile was hard for even Keith to resist.

Already, Lance was sitting in the sand, collecting it into a pile and pressing it upward. He eagerly waved Keith over. Leaving his food behind, he sat down opposite from Lance.

“Come on help me.” Lance didn't look up from his work.

“What should I do?” Keith watched Lance's hands carefully.

“Here, try to make this into a cylinder and flatten the top.” His hands made room for Keith's on the structure.

The tiny building took shape and Lance began to space out rectangles on the top.

“What're those?” Asked Keith.

“They're those, you know, blocks on top of castles that go up and down.” Lance drew them in the air with his finger.

All he got was a confused look from Keith, “No?”

His hands waved through the air, “Like… On top of the Great Wall of china! You know, there's a block then a space then a block and it just goes on like that.”

“Oh.” He started helping Lance shape the top of the castle.

Lance dug through the sand, picking out the prettiest looking rocks and sticking them around the base. He told Keith where to put finger indents for windows and where a door without without toppling the structure.

They looked down at their work. Keith snorted, “That's a pretty shitty sand castle. I think I could do better.”

A smirk grew on Lance's lips, “Is that a challenge?”

And so began what Lance called the sand castle wars. It wasn't like they had anything better to do. They built on separate sides of the beach, frequently sneaking over to the other’s side, to knock over his latest creation. Despite sand being a new medium for Keith, his constructions always held a certain form of artistry and were well decorated. Lance on the other hand knew what he was doing.

His castles were always bigger and well constructed. They were were true to the name sand castle, with multiple towers and walls and even moots on special occasions. He was always devastated to find his masterpieces in ruin, and retaliated by sniping Keith’s works with stones, while he was working.

Keith was in for a surprise when he went to flatten Lance’s latest monument. As he swung his foot, his toes slammed into a bed of rocks beneath the ordinary sandy looking surface.

“Fuck!” He howled.

On queue, Lance popped out from behind a root, cackling menacingly.

“You feel right into my trap.” His evil laugh was more of an ugly snort than anything.

Keith was cradling his foot on the ground, “What the hell! Are you some sort of super villain?”

In defense, Lance crossed his arms, “No, I'm just sick of you kicking my sand castles over.”

Keith hissed, “Then stopping throwing stones at mine!”

“You kicked mine over first!” With great effort he repressed his smile, “You're just jealous cause mine are better.”

“No way,” Snorted Keith, “Mine are way better. Yours are just bigger. Bigger isn't always better!”

Lance flaunted his eyebrows, “Oh, I'd _love_  to prove you wrong.”

Keith felt the inevitable blush coming on. His skin was still dusted pink, but it had finally adopted a more golden tone. Not as adequate for hiding the color in his cheeks. His eyes retreated to the ground as he reached his hand out.

“At least help me up, you monster.”

With his warm smile, Lance took Keith's hand. And was tossed forward, face-first into his own creation. Keith's smile grew smug as he smeared blood off his toe nails. After a deafening moment of accepting defeat, Lance pulled his face out of the sand. There was a new scratch on his nose and a forming bruise on his forehead.

“How did you not see that coming?” Snickered Keith.

To his surprise, Lance still grinned, “Oh, sorry. I was distracted by your school girl blush.”

Thank god he was facing away from Lance right now. The color staining his face now would put his other blush to shame. Why was Lance like this?

“Whatever, I'm just glad you got a taste of your own medicine.” He could pretend to play it off cool. Just like always.

“Ugh,” he whined, “Now I have to rebuild this.”

He drooped his already sany head back to the ground, “It's gonna be the biggest sand castle you've ever seen.”

Keith brushed sand off his shorts as he stood up, “I'm already on the edge of my seat.”

“Just you wait. It's going to be so big, I'm gonna live in it.” His eyes clenched shut as the sun filtered between the branches above him.

“I'll be waiting.” Keith smiled to himself. His sword was waiting for him, sheathed in the wood of the root he leapt over. On the other side, a humanoid figure of sticks and leaves glared back at him. It was just barely held together by bendy young tree branches and hardened tree sap.

Lance had discovered that when left in direct sunlight, the tree’s sap would turn into a brittle glass-like solid. The only problem with that was that it smelled atrocious for a day or two after it had solidified. Keith had gone through a fair share of train dummies made this way. He preferred to train with hand to hand combat, while Lance insisted on target practice. At least Keith had finally convinced him to do some form of training. He didn't know if Lance noticed but the gravity felt more and more natural everyday.

Keith resolved to stay in shape until they left. Lance did too. More or less.

After Keith had taken out his pent up energy on a now shattered training dummy, he ventured back to the stretch of beach, where Lance was probably constructing some sort of behemoth sand castle master piece.

When he sprang over the trunk, he spotted tufts of Lance’s sierra brown hair poking out from behind a homemade sand box. Keith inspected the messy walls as he trodden over. From what he could tell, this was Lance’s new sand-house. It looked big enough for two people and Lance was sitting inside clutching his knees.

He didn't look up when Keith peered over the edge.

“Can I… Come in?” Keith felt awkward asking. Lance just nodded.

The walls were low enough where all Keith had to do was step over. He sat down across from Lance, crossing his legs.

After a prolonged moment of silence Keith had to speak, “What's up?”

Lance hadn't spoken the whole time, which was odd by itself, but to top that he was curled into his knees staring at the sand.

He shrugged in response, leaving Keith with no idea what to do next.

“I miss having a house." Lance whispered, "I miss home."

Of course he did. They both did. But unlike Keith, Lance had people to get back to, people who cared about him. And Keith found himself not quite able to relate.

Keith could only think of one thing to do, “Let's build a house.”

He found Lance’s eyes questioning him. He almost looked mad.

“I know it's not the same… But it's something right? Something to do. Maybe it'll help too.”

Lance’s eyes softened. He nodded.

Building something bigger than a sand castle was surprisingly frustrating. The wood of the thicker branches was unusable. If it didn't have support on all sides it would crumble away. Keith was constantly climbing around to get branches. The branches could support their own weight, but they had to be stripped of all their leaves and twigs, and even then they were never perfect straight.

Keith had adopted the job of collecting and preparing the wood, while Lance cut them to the right height and constructed the walls. Even the smallest branches weren't flexible enough to withstand the complex knots needed to tie the sticks together. Lance decided the only way to actually keep the branches together was to use the sap.

He'd smear the sides of the sticks with the sticky green paste and leave the panels to dry in the sun. The only problem with that was the smell. Their work and living space filled with the smell of rooting vegetables and stayed that way for days. The only escape was the ocean, and Lance was distracted by it enough without the added benefit of escaping the torturous scent.

Still, Keith joined him sometimes. It was hard to resist the pleasant lure of the cool, liberating water. Keith wasn't totally guilt free either. Lances aw him when he's sit with his feet dangling off the edge of branch, enjoying the slight breeze and cool weather of the canopy.

Once Lance had finally finished assembling the walls, they began the world’s hardest four piece jigsaw puzzle. The first time every single side was a different size and even if they did fit, the inside would have been about ten square feet. Lance managed to always make everything just a little bit off.

Whenever they went to stick the last wall into the ground, they'd be a few sticks short, or a wall would fall over, or break, or overall just be a disaster.

After their fourth attempt Keith drew guide lines in the sand to make sure they had the amount of room they wanted _and_  the walls would fit together.

It turned into quite the project. Lance needed Keith's help to lift up towering walls and stake them in the ground. It was a whole other process to get the height of the walls to match, which eventually the two gave up trying at.

The cottage they resurrected was more of a stand alone room, that was for now, roofless. It was about as large as the average bedroom but felt larger without any furniture.

They had no idea what to do for the roof. Lance suggested leaves, like they use in island movies, but after a couple days they shriveled up and died. A roof made of the same caramelized sticks had to many holes and frequently fell in.

They still tried to sleep in it. It didn't feel much different from where they usually slept, in the nook of root, or even just sprawled out on the sand if you were Lance. Although when either woke up in the middle of the night, the stars always looked more brilliant than they could ever remember.

But Keith still had his resolve set on getting Lance a house. A real house.

Unable to do anything else, Keith took his frustration on the tree. It had life to spare and he didn't have to keep rebuilding it like his training dummies. Bark flew out in clumps as he hacked at it. The bark.

Lance was startled to see Keith vaulting over trunks holding a strip of bark taller than he was. Lance blinked at him, “What are you doing?”

“This is for the roof.” Keith heaved it off his back. It wouldn't cover the whole top, but a few more would do the trick.

“Oh cool!” Came Lance’s cheerful reply, “But how are we going to get it up there.”

That's how Keith ended up teetering back and forth on Lance’s shoulders, while also trying to control a floppy, crumbly and ridiculously large piece of bark above his head.

“Can't you stand still!” Keith shouted.

Lance’s torso jerked around even though his feet were firmly planted in the sand. “It's kind of hard when you're waving that thing around like that!”

“Just lean forward a little more…” Keith strained his arms out. Almost there…

He leaned forward a little too far. His upper body dropped, dragging Lance’s head and ultimately the rest of his body straight into the wall. The middle snapped as Keith's side caught his fall.

Lance groaned. As always he landed on his face, adding a few new scratches to the faded one across his nose.

He slapped his hand on Keith's back, “You suck. The parallel wall collapsed on top of them.

They gave up for a little while after that. It just felt so impossible and frustrating. Everything they did led to destruction. But Keith really didn't want to give up. He could finally do something for Lance.

The sky was lit by only stars as Keith dug the stakes back into the ground. Lance was sleeping down by the tide at his usual place in the sand. He always let his toes drift into the water. Keith didn't know how. Even though the tide never changed it would worry Keith falling asleep so close to the ocean. Not Lance though. It was his only comfort.

Keith planned on making another. He'd repaired the structure of the wall but it was difficult to get it into the ground by himself. The wall he was supporting was twice his arm span and he had to carefully dig each spike into the ground deep enough so that it won't fall out but not to where it was uneven with the rest of the walls.

It was quite a process with one person. Especially when he felt the board start to lean into him. Keith groaned. Not again. He foot swung back, not fast enough. But an arm did. And Keith was surprised to find that it was not his.

Lance caught him. His arm wrapped firmly around Keith's middle and his other hand pressed against Keith's stomach.

Their eyes met in mutual shock. Lance released his grip slowly. Keith pushed the wall back at an equal pace. Their eyes looked lost at each other, never breaking the gaze. It felt suspicious but surreal.

Lance broke the silence, “Wh-” He paused to gather his words, “What are you doing.”

Keith removed his hand with caution. “I-I was rebuilding the house.” He made it sound like a suggestion.

“Why?”

Keith shifted on his heels, “I don't know,” he grumbled, “I just wanted to.”

Lance scoffed, “That wall was about to fall on you _again_. You _want_ to? Why are you really doing this?”

His sincerity was as overwhelming as always to Keith. He didn't even notice Lance’s hand lingering on his shoulder.

“I… You… You said you wanted a house.” He stammered. The color rushed back to his cheeks.

Unable to produce a tangible response to that, Lance asked, “Why now? It's the middle of the night.”

Keith ran a hand threw his greasy, unkempt hair, “I can't sleep, Lance. It bothers me. Sleeping on the sand, or branches. There so much time and nothing to do, I can't stop thinking about it. So I distract myself. With stuff like this.”

Lance had been staring at Keith that whole time. Really looking at him. The bags under his eyes, their fogginess. The shape of his fading sunburns. The scab on his chapped lips. The flecks of cuts and bruises they both bore from surviving.

He couldn't help but wonder what he looked like now.

“I think we both need this.” Lance patted Keith's shoulder and stood back to look at the wall Keith supported.

He helped Keith fidget the wall into place. And it finally stayed. They stood inside inspecting the gaps between sticks. Lance looked up and decided he even liked it better without a roof.

“We don't need a roof,” he sat down gazing upward, “This way we can see the stars.”

Keith sat next to him looking glumly at the sand. His hair was ratty enough already, he didn't need sand in it. Lance took notice and a sudden thought struck him. He sprang up and bonded outside leaving Keith confused. It took him a little longer than he would have like, but Blue was over a couple roots. He returned with his jacket balled up in his fist, and tossed it at Keith, assuming his earlier spot.

Keith held it up, puzzled. It was way to hot to wear a jacket. Hell, Lance hadn't put a shirt on in weeks.

“You said you don't like sleeping in the sand right? You can use it like a pillow if you want. It's not like I'm going to need it.” Lance felt the need to diffuse the situation, “So you can keep your precious mullet out of the sand.”

Keith's smile looked warmer he's ever seen it. “Thanks.” He whispered.

He scrunched it back up and turned to face the wall when he lied down. It felt nice to put his head on something again.

___

Keith slept better than he had since they landed here. He woke up long after the sun rose and Lance was gone. With no waves to wash them away, their footprints were forever marked into the sand. He saw the tracks that looked like they followed Lance’s after he got up. Keith followed them, putting his foot in each print as he went.

In the most recent days clouds had been collecting in the sky. The breezes even reached all the way to the ground in certain moments.

To his surprise Lance wasn't in the water. He wasn't even on that strip of beach. Keith followed his steps to the nearby training ground Keith had established. Lance was there, shirtless and sweaty, using a distant twig sunk into a vine for target practice.

Nearly every shot blasted the stick shorter and shorter, until it was nothing more than a stump. Keith jumped down from where he's been observing. The sand was always sweltering over this outcropping due to the few leaves that grew over head.

Lance seemed to be preparing another target when he spotted Keith.

“Weird to see you over here.” Keith commented.

“Weird to see you.” Lance smeared back.

 _What_? Keith gestured.

“Whatever. What are _you_  doing here?” Lance busied himself fixing another twig target.

“I'm allowed to be here too.” Keith crossed his arms, “I'm here more than you are.”

“Doesn't mean you own it.” Lance sassed as he walked a good enough distance back. He shot past Keith's face without hesitation, singing the end of the stick off. Keith jumped back, caught off guard.

Lance just smirked, “Now that you're here, want to help me?”

“Depends,” Keith pursed his lips, “with what?”

“Just sit over there.” He pointed to one of the only shaded spots near the base of the tree, and began combing the beach. Keith felt his growing suspicion, but sat anyways.

Then Lance came over with a quartz in his hand and told Keith to sit up straighter.

He gave Lance a curious look when he put the rock on his head.

Lance’s grin was not comforting, “Just keep it there.”

As Lance walked away, realization dawned on him, “Oh no no,” Keith yelped, “I am not doing that.”

He went to get up, but Lance shouted back at him, “No, no! Wait just give me a chance.”

“Not on your life.” Snorted Keith.

“Please!” Lance fluttered his eyelashes even though Keith was to far away to see. “Come on. Don't you trust me?”

Keith really hated his choice of words. It made him feel guilty. He was stuck in an indecisive position in between sitting and kneeling. He knew he could regret it for the rest of his possibly very short life, but Keith sat back down..

“I swear to god Lance, if you hit me a will resurrect myself, to come back end your sorry life.”

“Noted.” Lance looked overjoyed.

He aimed at the stone, but from where Keith was sitting it just looked like the gun was pointed at him. One eye was squeezed shut and his tongue poked out of his mouth, but Lance’s hands remained steady.

Keith's eyes were shut. He didn't when he's shut them, but they were squeezed so tight he couldn't even see the red of the sun through his eyelids.

Then he heard the click of the trigger and a blast. His arms jolted at his side, but he didn't dare moved his head. He didn't know if the moments he felt were slower or faster than they should be. But his eyes did open again. And Lance was there doing a ridiculous victory dance.

“Haha! Miss? Me?” He grinned, “You got the wrong guy Keith!” His smile was stupidly contagious.

Keith reached for the rock on his head. It was warm, dusted with black coal. He tossed it into the sand. The hair on top his head felt unscathed, but his psyche sure didn't. The urge to get back at Lance was irresistible.

Now it was Keith's turn to grin menacingly, “Ok,” He cooed, “Now it's your turn.”

Keith pulled his black gloves out of his pocket. “Time to spar.”

Lance felt as cocky as he looked, “I'll take you on any day.”

Keith finished putting his gloves on and discarded his shirt. He watched Lance square up, noting his errors in form.

Hand to hand combat was Keith's area of expertise. He let Lance move first, not feeling like being copied. Predictably he swung right first, aiming for the side of Keith's head. All it took to dodge was a pivot, and Keith's right fist went barreling into Lance’s stomach. He keeled over for a second, Keith's power caught him by surprise.

He shook his hands out and bounced back towards Keith on the balls of his feet. His left foot twisted into the ground telling Keith to block for another right hook. Instead Lance’s right leg came crashing down on his shoulder. Hissing in surprise, Keith readjusted his strategy. If Lance thought he had tricks, he was in for a nasty surprise.

Keith let him swing blocking all but one of Lance's obvious blows. Hitting Lance back was harder than he expected. His reflexes were sharp, but not perfect. Keith dug his right heel into the sand and swung hard with his left. Lance easily deflected it when Keith followed through, he curled his body around, pivoting on his heel to send his other foot slamming into Lance’s shoulder.

Caught completely off guard, Lance barely stopped himself from hitting the ground.

“Ouch.” He hissed.

With renewed vigor, Lance launched himself at Keith, swiping with both hands. It was hard to block all of his blows, but Keith managed. He aimed his knee at Lance’s stomach, but this time he slide smoothly out of they way.

They were both panting, sweaty hair sticking to their faces. Keith darted forward and dropped to his knee to avoid Lance’s left hook. He swung his heel into Lance’s legs, sweeping him off his feet.

Sprawled out in the sand, Lance accepted defeat, “Ok, I'm done.” He panted.

Keith wiped sweat from his brow, “I thought you could take me any day.” He teased.

“Give me my bayard, and definitely. But you are some sort of ninja. Hand to hand isn't even close to fair.”

Keith wouldn't tell him it was closer to a fair fight than he thought. “Excuses, excuses.”

“Whatever,” he sighed, “Just come help me up.” Lance hung his arm in the air.

Keith was so infatuated with victory, he failed to notice the obvious trap. The second he touched Lance’s hand, he was sent flying forward into the sand. Only Lance had spun him around so his bare back hit the sand. In a flash Lance was on top of him, hands on either side of Keith's neck. Lance’s sly grin mock him.

“Haha! I can't believe you didn't see that coming. Not so high and mighty now, huh?” Lance was to distracted beaming, to notice Keith's face.

His face was absolutely beet red, with wide eyes. Even his ears were blooming with color.

Their breaths mingled in the space between them as Lance laughed. His face sparkled with sweat, so close that Keith could see the moisture beading his eyelashes.

Lance sat up on Keith's pelvis,exposing Keith’s stunned eyes to the glaring white cloud cover. When he got to his feet he offered Keith his hand, who was so dazed he took it without a second thought.

Lance began to ramble like usual but Keith didn't hear a word. He was to caught up in his smile, in his lips, in his face.

Suddenly, Keith snapped back into reality as Lance walked away.

“Where are you going?” He breathed.

“Were you even listening?” Lance sighed, “We're going to get breakfast!”

Keith scratched his head, “Oh, yeah.”

There was rumbling in the sky. A disagreement of gods above the blanket of moisture. It was thunder. Not the thunder that split ears, sent down blazing in strikes of lightning, but the thunder when air meet and rumbled peacefully. Two bodies of hot and cold moving to their preferred locations.

Then from the first time in a lifetime, it rained.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have I mentioned that I love all of you? Cause I really should. Thank you for all your support!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A nice short and sweet chapter to finish off the week! Enjoy!

The rain lasted for an eternity. At first, even Keith enjoyed it. The shower felt relieving on his messy hair, and his dry stinging face.

But it wasn't just a shower. It was a full on _downpour_. Like getting hit in the face with gallons of water at a time. In minutes, it was dark and blinding, almost impossible to see a few feet ahead. Keith could help but feel a twinge of disappointment. Their sandcastles.

Still, saying Lance loved it was an understatement. The second the first drop hit his nose, he died and went to heaven. He spent at least an hour, planted in the wet sand letting himself wash away in the water.

It was liberating, a gift. Until night fell, and still, neither could see a foot in front of their face, through the blinding white torrent.

The first thing Keith did was try to take shelter in his lion, jumping through the hatch on the back, stuck open. Inside it was dark, wet from rain pouring through the hatch. It's single glass panel only gave view to the gravel the ship was buried under, too dark to make out any shapes. Keith immediately regretted his decision. Familiar darkness, and tension in air clouded his senses.

He slide down to the pilot seat, noticing how light shone off the single threatening crack in the glass. Sandy dust covered the seat and controls. Water pooled at the foot of the cockpit. The walls kept catching Keith’s attention. The memories of restless, fear, loneliness all came rushing back too fast. He hunched over, forcing his palm against a cool metal wall.

There was nothing here for him. As fast as he could manage, Keith hauled himself out into fresh, heavy air, and spotted Lance still stuck willingly in the mud. The sky was getting even darker.

They had to take shelter, a damp uncomfortable, shelter beneath a bridge of branch, with just enough space to fit their bodies inside, would keep them dry. It was by far the worst night of Keith's life. Hot damp air clogged his nostrils. The constant brain spattering smash of the rain, was a mere foot above one ear, and damp shifting sands beneath the other. Not to mention the eairy creek of the unstable root above his head.

The occasional sound of Lance shifting at his feet grounded him. He was completely at peace, his soft snoring occasionally breached the rumble of the rain and thunder.

Keith woke to blinding flashes of lightning, tearing up the distant seas in white hot flashes. He felt Lance’s feet jolt into his own, making Keith's mind bolt awake in shock.

When the sun had probably risen, it was still dark enough to be considered night. But Keith wouldn't hate anything more than to rot away under a vine all day.

Sensing Keith’s discomfort, Lance tried to usher Keith to a place where they could actually speak without getting a lung full of water.

“Let's try to put the roof back on!” Shouted Lance through a forming roar of thunder.

Keith grimaced, “Fine. I'll go carve some more bark. You go get that other piece from our first try.”

“Where'd you leave it?” Lance shielded his eyes, to see where Keith was pointing.

“Over by the base of the tree behind the house.” He yelled.

Lance stumbled over, sinking deeper into the thick sand with every step. He used the panel as an umbrella against the vicious downpour. At the edge of his line of sight he could just make out the giant drops slamming into the surface of the ocean. The tides had already claimed at least a foot of beach.

Keith returned a short while later balancing two human sized walls of bark on his hands and head. He staked the into the ground next to the hut and waved Lance over frantically.

He looked as thrilled as ever when Lance knelt down for Keith to climb on his back. It was twice as hard to do when Lance’s skin was slicked by the rain. Lance lifted them up with a grunt of effort and took a weighted step forward, when his ankle rotated deep in the sand. He gracefully slipped backwards, tossing Keith's body into the gravel with a thunk.

Keith groaned, “I hate you.”

“Shut up, and get back here.” He spat water out of his mouth.

Once again sporting Keith on his shoulders, Lance hosted the roof tiles up with great difficulty. He struggled to get the appropriate distance from their cottage skeleton, but eventually heard the thunk of the panel landing on the roof.

Getting the other two tiles on was easier than expected. Keith practically knocked Lance over, when he flew off Lance and into the finished house.

Lance sprinted inside as well, and took a huge breath of relief to match Keith's. He could finally wipe his bangs out his eyes without protest, and take a breath through his mouth without fear.

Keith was already laying in the soaked sand. He happened to choose one of the few spots where rain drops would leak down onto his face. Lance found his forgotten jacket drenched in the sand. He saw fit to hang it up on a protruding twig to dry.

With extreme caution, Keith leaned his body onto the wall praying that it would hold. When it did, he let out another well earned sigh of relief.

Lance sat down next to him, and into a puddle. He groaned for more than one reason.

“I'm starving.” Whined Lance.

Keith glared at him, “Yeah, well nothing we can do about that now.”

Lance fidgeted, trying to see further out the entrance, “I might be able to catch _something._ ”

“Good luck,” Keith snorted, “It's impossible to see the ground and you're going to spot a fish long enough to stab it?”

Lance sighed at Keith smugness, “No.”

The cold rain settled into his bones, in direct contrast with the sticky air on his skin. Keith knocked his head against the wall and stared up at the leaky ceiling above them.

“I wonder when it will stop.” Lance was clutching his knees, eyes laser focused on the rain outside.

It didn't stop. Not that day. Or the next. But they had to leave, hunger being their prime source of motivation. Keith was right, it was virtually impossible to catch a fish, so they relied solely on the tree for nutrition. The sap proved difficult to collect in the weather, as directly out of the vines, it was drippy and slick. The rain water also tasted just as horrible and bitter as the ocean, so the two were forced to drink directly from the bark to avoid getting putrid mouthfuls of rain water.

Lance looked down at the pitiful curled leaf in his hand. He and Keith were making a mad dash back to the hut with the meager reminisce of what they collected. Keith flew inside, dangerously close to smashing into a wall. The sand had dried enough where it was manageable to sleep on it, but it was still uncomfortable and damp.

Keith shook his plastered hair off his face so he could actually see what he had managed to gather. The substance in his leaf resembled soup, he ate it as such. Now it really tasted like vegetable soup.

Lance barely touched his, looking as miserable as ever. He hadn't let the rain confine him to the cabin as much as Keith had. He still braved the torrents to poke around in the sea and try to better assessed what time of day it was.

Keith knew what hell was; the drippy inside of a homemade cottage during a year long thunderstorm. The echoing roar of thunder inched closer to their doorstep every second. Keith tried to collect sticks to dry and arrange a fire, but no matter what he did it wouldn't light. The air was to heavy with the weight of a tempest, to let the wood spark.

Thoughts brewing in Keith's head had enough violent rage to be considered a hurricane by themselves. He grew more restless by the second, couldn't move, couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, couldn't think. Keith carved his anguish into the sand and around his thoughts. Just for something to do.

No pattern he made ever resembled anything, but it was _something_.

Lance seemed unfathomably all right with the void in space. It torn Keith's mind in half that Lance could just sit there and _watch_. He could stare out the door, at the rhythmic pounding of the rain, for what felt like hours.

The only thing that kept him grounded was the random, idle chit chat with Keith.

Sometimes it was completely absurd. Something that fell from the mouth of a man going mad.

“Do you think plants have feelings?”

“What the hell Lance.””

More often than not it was an invasive personal question, “Have you ever had a boyfriend before?”

Keith paused from where he was dragging his sword through the gravel, “Uh… Yeah, I guess so.”

He was more a one night stand type of guy, but that didn't mean he couldn't keep a date.

“What's it like?”

“You've had a girlfriend right?”

Lance nodded.

“It like that, but instead of a girl, they're a boy.”At Least, Keith assumed it was the same. He'd never had a girlfriend.

Then a thought popped into his head, “You've never dated a guy before?”

Lance shrunk a bit, “No,” he peeped, “I've liked them, like a lot, but never dated one.”

Keith shrugged, outwardly unfazed.

And sometimes it hurt.

“Keith,” Lance started, “Do you think the others are ok?”

Keith was taken by surprise, “I don't know.” He swallowed.

Lance’s eyes were wide, like a camera zoomed in too far, “They could be on a nice planet, like us. They could have fixed their ship even. Maybe they're coming to get us right now.” He turned to give Keith the most unsettling look he'd ever received, “But… Y-You almost died. If you- If you did, they could had too, or worse.”

Keith moved closer, concerned beyond belief. He expect these kind of intrusive, bullshit thoughts from his brain, not another living, breathing person.

“What if- what if,” Lance was shaking, “What if they're dead.”

The rain pelted sideways, shaking the thin walls. Cracks of lightning light up shelter for only moments at a time. Otherwise their surroundings were dimly lit by the eerie blue glow of the sun through the clouds.

Keith shook his head. He couldn't say ‘no that's not true’. He couldn't say ‘that's impossible, that's ridiculous’. Nothing he could say would comfort their deepest fear.

“Don't. _Please_.” He begged. An unexpected rush of wind rattled the branches, and flapped under the roof panels.

Lance's hands flew to his face pulling back his hair. Either rain or tears fell from his eyes, “I'm sorry,” he smile and sniffled, “It's just that… If everything here looks so bad, what's it like for them?”

Keith leaned closer, gritting his teeth. Lance coughed. “Do you realize how lucky we got? Billions of stars, planets in the known universe, and fraction of a fraction are habitable… And both of us! End up on the same one?”

The tremors passing through his chest made his voice shake. Keith continued to shake his head, silently pleading with Lance to stop.

“ ‘nd- And!” He gulped suddenly, “Time. Time’s different all over the place. On this planet it feels like only a couple of months have past, but… Years could have passed. On earth. Anywhere.”

Lance’s chest heaved, Keith had a death grip on Lance’s shoulder, now certain that the fluid on Lance’s cheeks were tears. A threat formed behind his own eyelids.

“What if… The galra. They wouldn't even need the extra time. They could have taken over earth.” He was choking now, “Everyone I- we, know could be-e enslaved, or dead.”

Keith's brain fumed with terror, for Lance, and for everything he could right about.

“The paladins.” He looked at his hands in anguish, “They could _all_  be dead. Or captured. A-and that means that galaxy's good as done.”

Lance collapsed backwards. Keith rolled that familiar terror around in his head. _Anything_  but that. The paladin were his family. All of them. Even Lance.

He looked to where Lance was dragging his palms across his face. Keith jumped over him.

“Lance, stop. I already know all of this. What do you think I've been think about this whole time. But those are all just ifs. I don't need that right now, you don't need that right now. So please… Stop.”

There was probably something better to say. There were probably a lot of better things to say. But Keith wouldn't know.

“What if everything's fine?”

Keith dropped down next to Lance, his back pressed against Lance’s arm. When his breathing grew steadier, his hands retreated from his face. He rolled over, turning away from Keith, who just blinked at the wall. He spotted Lance’s jacket slumped up in the corner, where he'd slept on it last night. His only comfort, so far…

Lances back pressed back against his, their ankles bumped together.

“I miss human contact.” Lance whispered. A rumble of thunder grew steadily in the distance. Keith couldn't say he did too. The only human contact he missed was his fist to someone else's skin. But he was sure he could learn to miss this.

A stripe of lightning flashed in the distance, followed by a late crash of thunder that reverberated through the sand. Keith felt a soft lurch of Lance’s lungs against his back. The pattern grew more steady, lulling him. And for once, the purr of the rain soothed his aching soul.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha ok so I lied. There was nothing sweet about that chapter. Anyway... Yes I fawn over all the comments. Yes even the ones where it's three am and you just smash the keyboard because it's three am and what are emotions. 
> 
> (I have no idea how to get rid of that second note so I'm just going to continue to advertise myself)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The is an ultra chapter at 6000+ words. I had tons of fun talking to a few of you at Elentori's stream last night, and I hope to meet many more of you wonderful people! Enjoy!

Suddenly Keith was awake. Rain smashed into the back of his skull. His dazed brain rushed to asses the situation. The walls of their hut stood tall around him, and he struggled to look up into the current. The rain. _The roof_.

It was gone. Leaving them to be violently whipped into consciousness by the elements. Beside him he made out Lance's figure, in a similar state of disarray. Keith's hands were still clutched tight around Lance's jacket, which had been, moments ago, supporting his head, still dry and warm.

He tossed the hood over his head and dove for their shirts balled up against a wall that rattled in the wind. Keith jammed the soaked fabric into the jacket's pockets and stumbled over to Lance, who was standing, panicked. The walls teetered in the violent surges of wind. Just when the wall in front of the looked on the verge of collapsing Lance grabbed his wrist and ran.

He dashed passed Red shielding his eyes, and dropped Keith's hand to vault over the root in the path. Keith followed without a word, trying to keep the hood low on his head, so the jacket wouldn't blow away in the wind. The twisting vines were slippery under their feet, making the obstacle course even harder to navigate.

Lance sent sand flying up in clumps, as he hit the other side of the beach. Stealing a glance behind him to make sure he hadn't lost Keith, he sprinted toward the end of the stretch of shore.

The rain swept down sideways stinging their skin. Lance was sure he'd never seen the water this far across the shore before. Real waves crashed onto the beach, sending added spray into the rain.

Lance skidded into an outcrop of branches, chest heaving. Keith slide in right next to him. They could breath again. The space shielding them from the storm was small, their shoulders pressed together as Keith squished himself further out of the rain’s reach.

A sharp rock dug into Lance's foot as he tried to make room. He flinched back towards Keith, effectively pinning him against the wall. Keith shoved him back into place. Lance whined at his forceful contact.

“Why'd you bring us here?” Hissed Keith.

Lance smoothed the hair off his face, “It was the only place I could think of that would get us out of the rain for long enough to think.”

“Not a very good one.” Keith grumbled.

“Be my guest and step back out there.” He gestured a the downpour beside them. Keith crossed his arms in defeat.

“So what's your plan?” A huge stray raindrop smacked Keith in the face, much to his disgust.

Lance shifted on his heels, “I don't know! I brought _us_ here to think.”

Their attention was drawn back outside to an earsplitting crack of thunder. The brightness of the flash was alarming.

“I've never seen anything like this.” Lance tried to rub the cold goosebumps off his arms.

“Me neither…”

They stood there, Lance grinding his heels into the sand, Keith's shriveled up into the sodden jacket. The rushing sound of the wind around them made Keith feel like the whole structure could collapse at any moments. Lance ground his bottom lip between his teeth.

“Err… I think I might have an idea but we have to walk pretty far, and I have to stop at my lion.”

Keith groaned, “Whatever, I don't care as long as it gets us out of here.”

The bolted back across the soaked terrain. Keith kept having to pause to peel the longer ends of his bangs out of his eyes. Every time Lance would stop and wait for him, but Keith wished he wouldn't.

They sprinted across the street h of beach where their house was… had been. A pile of jagged splinters lay scattered across the sand. Hours and hours of labor gone in second, on the whim of a storm. Keith forced himself to look away. There was nothing they could do now.

Lance rushed through into his lion, Keith hot on his tail.

“I need you to get four sharp rocks.” Lance panted, as he began to search his cabin. The look Keith gave him was poisonous enough to kill, but luckily Lance didn't look up. Begrudgingly, Keith sprang back outside and searched the outskirts of the beach as best he could. When he returned, Lance had a huge rope slumped over his shoulder. At the end of it he tied a short wooden stake.

They both pulled their drenched shirts over their heads, in favor of being uncomfortable rather than have the rain brand their skin.

“Follow me.” Lance ducked his head low and trudged back out, slowed by the weight of his luggage. Keith had no choice but to follow his less than desired pace, as he had no clue where they were going.

A few times Keith had to help Lance lug the rope over vines so they could continue on. When they reached a patchwork of vines that was unfamiliar to Keith, Lance held his hand out for two of the stones Keith had retrieved. Climbing felt impossible. Every time they looked up they the were greeted by a burning eyeful of rain and a dull mass of dark shapes. Plus Lance had to drag the rope up with him.

Keith crawled up ahead of Lance and helped him hoist the extra weight up to their destination. Only when Lance started to unravel the rope did Keith recognize their location. This was where Keith had climbed out of the center of the tree. That's where they were going.

Lance jammed the stake into the space between two tight knit branches. Every movement they made was hindered by the weather. When Lance hurled the end of the rope through the hole, Keith leapt on it, swinging his body of the edge without a second thought.

Cool air and flurry of movements met him. His hand worked steadily down the rope as his eyes searched the walls. All the fungus was dimly lit across the ceiling and walls. The low glow of the room made it appears as if it was lit by a night light. On nearly every surface, a nasty, green bat was perched, wings adorned with fairy lights.

They parted along the walls where Keith descended, showing various displays of aggression or submission to him. He felt a few water drop hit his head. Above him Lance began the climb down, equally dazed by their environment. The cavern had an aura of drowsiness and calm about it.

Keith’s feet touched the ground lightly with fear of breaking the dream like atmosphere. He stepped to the side to let Lance down beside him. They shared a look of wonder and tiptoed over to the nearest quartz.

“So that's where they go.” Lance blinked.

Keith nodded. They made sure the volume of their voices didn't break the gentle murmur of the rain or clatter of claws in bark. A couple silky fishy disrupted the glossy pools at their feet. They seemed more less plentiful than the last time the two had been here.

“What now?” Keith whispered. He had to admit, it felt nice to be out of the rain.

Lance poked a toe into the water to attract a fish, “I don't know,” he said wistfully, “I'm pretty hungry. But I don't want to catch any of these fish. They're really pretty.” Lance's smile was even more heartwarming in fairy lights.

At the mention of food Keith became aware of the state of his body. A chill plagued his muscles, and a knot in his side added to the ebbing pain in his stomach. He could barely feel his toes, numb from sprinting across cold, jagged bark.

“I could try to make a fire?” Keith suggested. Lance's facial expression said he didn't love the idea.

“Well, we're kind of in a tree and wood is flammable…” He studied the ceiling. The single gap in the roof was not pouring down rain, “ I guess if you wanted to try, you could do it over there. So the smoke doesn't hurt the… animals … or you know, set fire to the whole tree.

Keith agreed and set off to find some appropriate materials, leaving Lance to play around with this fish.

There were plenty of quartz around to help start the fire once Keith constructed the setup. And Keith's knife was still tucked snugly in his belt loop. Lance wandered over to help, or more likely watch, Keith start the fire. Despite the weather conditions the kindling Keith found stayed dry enough to catch fire. The thin trail of smoke it produced rose straight out the hole in the ceiling.

As Keith had prepared the wood he could have sworn there were still indents in the sand from when he's jumped down here the first time.

Lance had taken the liberty to let all the clothes dry on a rock by the fire, he'd even asked Keith for his shirt. The monsters shifted uneasily above their heads, but the temperament of the room remained peaceful.

The fire refracted through the lightly colored crystals surrounding them, projecting broken dances of flames along the walls. The creatures fluttered in and around them, just as dazzled as the two boys were. They chased the lights like cats, flicking their tails about and yowling silently as they jumped on each other.

“This is weird.” Whispered Lance, unable to look away.

“Agreed.” Said Keith, mesmerized.

As the fire dwindled down to a simmer, the moss appeared more vibrant without the added light. Lance leaned back on a rock enjoying this new version of star gazing. Keith wiggled around in the sand next to him, unable to get comfortable with a rock for a pillow.

Lance chuckled and tossed his jacket over Keith's head. As usual, he'd chosen to remain shirtless. Keith shot him a deep frown, but accepted his gift anyways. He'd grown accustomed to the smell he buried his head in every night, but now Lance's jacket smelled more like rain and campfires. It was disappointing, but Keith was just happy to be comfortable at this point.

The fluid motion of bodies of stars moving above them was was dizzying yet soothing. Keith found his eyelids drooping lower every second.

___

The sound of laughter woke him. It could have been late. It could have been early. Time of day didn't matter anymore. Keith picked up his head and met Lance, only a few feet away from him, giggling.

“What?” Groaned Keith.

Lance cackled, “You have bird shit all over you!”

He eyes fell across the side that had been facing up when he was sleeping. His shirt and skin were covered with white stains. Keith ripped his shirt off, revolted and went to scrub of his arm in the nearest pool. All while Lance was keeling over.

“I don't know what's so funny,” Keith smiled pleasantly, “You should take a look at your back.”

Lance froze. He pulled the fabric on his back into view and gagged. It was covered in disgusting white splatters. While shrieking, Lance whipped off his shirt his shorts off and threw them at Keith.

“What the hell! I'm not your maid.” Hissed Keith. His brain tripping over the fact that Lance was standing in front of him in nothing but a pair of dark blue boxers. Lance's shorts were also covered in monster crap.

“Fine!” Lance sighed like an overdramatic rich boy.

He dropped to his knees next to Keith and scrubbed violently at his shirt. It was easy to ignore Lance's complaining. And his sighing. And his obvious attempts to wipe shit on Keith.

It wasn't as easy to ignore when their elbows bumped. Or when their knees touched. And Keith's brain might as have short-circuited when Lance stood up and put his hand on Keith's neck to reach for his shorts beyond him. He dread that Lance could feel him tense or feel the goosebumps that rose only where their skin met.

Once again Lance laid out all their clothes on the quartz. Just enough time for Keith to compose himself and act like a normally functioning human being for five minutes.

It might as well have been night because neither would be able to see a thing if it weren't for the delicate blue lights illuminating the cavern. Lance ran his hands along the walls searching for a break in the branches. When he found one he stuck his eye against it.

Keith trotted over, “What do you see?”

“Darkness. And rain,” Lance pouted, “The wind really picked up all of the sudden too.”

Branches were swept across the beach like nothing, by the swirling torrents. The darkness that indicated the water, appeared even closer too. He stepped back letting Keith look.

A couple brave creatures came within a few feet of them to see what they were investigating. Lance shooed them away with a grimace.

Keith sat down in the sand. It was dry, but Keith couldn't bring himself to be grateful.

“This sucks.” He sighed.

Lance sat down next to him. His shorts were finally dry enough to wear. To Keith's alarm, Lance threw an arm around his shoulder and pulled them together in a kind of side hug.

“It's ok!” Lance seemed totally unphased by either issue, “It can't rain forever.”

But it could rain the day after that. And the next. And the next.

Keith had enough rain to last him the rest of his life. He was sick of being stuck. At least in the cavern it was roomy enough to pace, or hack random non living things to bits, or do other things Keith did when he was anxious.

There were more things to distract Lance too. Pretty fish to dance around his fingers, and weirdly curious bat monsters to throw things at. After a couple hours of tossing pebbles in the air, a couple would zoom down and try to catch them. Then a couple more. Then they had to stop because the mid-air cat fights were turning into full on brawls, with claws, and jagged beaks, and possibly poisonous tails flying through the air.

The moss was the most fascinating thing to watch. Not only did it attach itself to the wings of the monsters, but the veins it created across the surface of the vines pulsates and flickered with the movement of the bats. At times it almost looked like a heartbeat.

Then the lights went out. A sudden and complete shut-down, like a natural power outage. Lance and Keith were left quite literally in the dark.As if sucked pit by a vacuum every single beast shot out of the exits at once. The sound of beating wings was suffocating for a few seconds, followed by cold, hard silence.

In the minutes it took for their eyes to adjust, they guided each over to the wall where they could see outside.

“Over here dipshit.” Keith had found it first. Lance was fumbling, stepping in puddles, and waving his arms around wildly,trying to find Keith.

“Where the fuck is over here?” There was a splash as Lance tripped over a crystal into a pool. Keith had to physically restrain his laughter, but was very unsuccessful.

“Oh haha,” spat Lance, “When I get over there I'm gonna punch you.”

“If you can find me.” Snorted Keith.

Lance was closer than he expected. Moments later a hand clapped down on his face.

“You ass! That was my face!” Keith shrieked.

Lance grinned, “I know.”

Grumbling Keith stuck his eye down to the part of the twigs. He stared out for what felt like hours. At first he waited for his eyes to adjust, then he took in the sight before him.

Lance twiddle his thumbs in silence before he let his concern grow to much.

“Everything all right?” Lance leaned down close to his face. Keith rose upward. Lance couldn't see it, but he was deathly pale, pupils huge in his dark iris.

“Look.”

Lance raised an eyebrow, but bent down and waited for his eyes to adjust. He could tell it was raining though not as hard, and the wind sounded gentler than yesterday. He spotted the dark outline of the shore. It couldn't have been more than ten feet away. He'd never considered that it would rise that far. His eyes wandered further. The sea and the sky looked the same shade. Lance looked up further.

The colors of the sea and the sky were very distinct. He couldn't tell at first because the sea rose a mile up into the sky. It was so far away it was hard to tell how high. But it was _high_.

Lance turned, completely stunned. Neither could see the others face but they knew.

“D-did you see that?” Lance peeped.

“Yes.” Keith's voice was so weak he was sure he'd imagined it.

“What do we do?” Lance forced his hands not to tremble like the rest of him.

“I-I don't know.” The crack of his voice was painful.

Lance wanted to check and make sure what he saw was real. A wave. A mile high wave. Was it headed for them? Was it real?

He couldn't. He couldn't look at that again. As if in a dream, Lance wandered over to their camp. Keith followed, lost. Lance put his shirt on and handed his jacket absentmindedly to Keith. No thoughts ran through Keith's head as he slung it on over his shirt and rolled up the sleeves.

Lance fumbled around for Keith's wrist, and his feet lead their vacant bodies to the apt where the rope reached up into the light of the overcast. To test its stability, Lance gave it a weak tug. It fell free without hesitation, it wouldn't have held either of their bodies.

Lance's breath caught in his throat, Keith stared empty at some unknown fixture. After that Lance's breath came fast and shaky. He grabbed the rope in his shaking hands, making sure it really fell, that this was really happening.

“Keith.” He choked. Keith was long gone. The thoughts inhabiting his mind just felt like tv static.

The rumble of thunder in the distance was like Keith's wake-up slap. His eyes sprang back into alertness and found Lance hyperventilating on the floor.

“Lance!” He yelped. His first thought was to slap some sense back into Lance, but that probably wouldn't work knowing their relationship. Instead, he peeled Lance's hands out of his hair and forced Lance to look him in the eye.

“Come on Lance! We have to go. Leave the rope.”

Lance shook his head, “H-how, are we supposed to get o-out, without the rope?”

Keith bit his lip, “You swam out last time. Right?” It was clear Keith disliked the idea, “Let's do that.”

Lance smacked himself in the face, on the verge of tears. “I lied,” his nails dug into his forehead, “It wasn't easy. I could barely manage. Keith I'm not sure if you-”

Keith's teeth gritted together. They did not have many options, in fact the only had one; swim out.

“Lance.” Keith grabbed his face, “It's our only option we have to try.”

The terrified look on Lance's face killed him. That was for him. He tugged Lance to his feet and let him lead the way to the pool that lead out. The minutes it took them in the dark helped Lance collect himself. He waded into the pool. Once he was waist deep Keith started too. They walked until it was just below their shoulders. Lance gripped the wall.

“Take as many deep breaths as you can. And take an extra big one before you go.” His voice trembled, “There's roots and rocks, use those to push yourself along. Especially cause it's harder to swim with clothes on.” He eyed the jacket he gave Keith nervously.

“Ok.” Keith swallowed. They could feel each other shaking in the water.

“You can do this.” Lance didn't know if he was saying it to Keith or himself.

“Ready?” Asked Keith.

“No.”

And after a couple seconds of heavy breathing they disappeared under the surface.

Keith held his breath with his cheeks puffed out.He could feel the current from Lance swimming ahead of him. His hands brushed against the bottom in between strokes, searching the floor for rocks like Lance suggested. When he found one, he launched himself forward. And upward. He prayed Lance didn't hear the thunk of his skull, and stop. Keith kept moving as fast as he could. His eyes flashed open, the water burned. He saw nothing. He stretched his hands out as far as they would go.

Lance's foot met his hand, and he _almost_ let out a breath a relief. He could do this. The ache in his lungs started. It was still dark. The air burned up in his throat as the darkness continued. The bottom was only sand whenever he checked. He forced himself to keep moving. The strain spread to his nose. His lips were threatening to open. Keith couldn't feel Lance ahead of him. His teeth would break before he let the air out.

Then Lance's foot kicked his hand. And he let his breath go. A weight knocked into his chest, as he tried to breath. He stopped trying, it stung so bad. Floating in darkness clutching his throat, about to let go and gape like a fish. The world swirled around him. Nothing felt like up or down, just a rush of current. His brain went numb. No thoughts, no feelings, just pain. Overwhelming pain. He lost feeling in his hands, then his arms, then his chest.

And then his head breached the surface.

His lungs burst, spewing out water. His hands had a death grip around his throat ,like he was sure it would explode if he let go. He couldn't make out the shapes above him, just dark and not. His body hit solid ground, and he flopped over like a fish. He coughed his lungs inside-out trying to get the water out. His eyes spat tears onto the sand. The air burned his lungs instead of soothed, to sudden and harsh. But he couldn't get enough.

A hand rubbed circles on his back that he hadn't noticed before. Keith looked up from where he was carving his fingernails into the sand. Lance was there, with a look like death in his eyes. He was still breathing hard, but not coughing up water like Keith, which was a good sign.

His hearing came popping back, and there first sound heard was Lance's reassuring words, “That's it. Just breath.”

Keith coughed out a sighed of relief. For minute in between life and death he'd thought Lance wouldn't have made it either. He had to remind himself that Lance had done it before.

The coughing subsided enough for Keith to get a word in, “Lance.”

Lance's bottom lip quivered, “Keith… I'm here. Just be ok.”

He leaned closer wrapping his arm around Keith's back. The water felt like it was almost all out, and his lungs accepted air again. He sat up, eyes fixed on the sand, “Did you save me?”

To his surprise Lance pulled him in for a hug. “I-I thought you were dead!” He sniffed, “I saw you floating a few feet down so I grabbed you and dragged you to shore.”

Lance's fingernails were marking Keith's back, but he just blinked.

“Lance.”

“Yeah?” He loosed his grip a little.

“Lance.” Keith's arm left his side and pointed to something behind them. Lance turned his head.

The tidal wave.

Lance hadn't even noticed the rain dripping onto his back until now. The wave could still be miles away, but they could tell, it was the biggest thing either of them would ever see. Lance pulled away and turned to face doom. It looked like a cliff dropped off into the ocean, but the cliff was headed straight for them.

They sat in the sand. Everything and nothing running through their heads at once. Lance couldn't move. He'd never move again. Death staring him in the eyes, the size of planet. A completely impassable wall.

He heard Keith choke beside him. He looked at Lance, but Lance couldn't see him. Keith crumpled into the ground. He mind was gone. Lance's mind was gone. It was over. This was as unavoidable as death itself because that's what it was. A death sentence. Keith dropped his head onto Lance's thigh.

Lance whimpered. His eyes finally found Keith's and his lips trembled. The rain fell down their face in the place of tears. Too drained, too gone to cry. Lance couldn't stand to sit there, and have Keith look at him like he gave up. Keith couldn't stand to lie there and have Lance look at him like he was the last person he'd ever see.

At the same time they got up. Shaky and weak from swimming, but they stood, using each other for support.

“What do we do?” Keith croaked.

Lance’s droopy eyes studied the wave. “Get to high ground?”

“How high?” Keith whimpered.

Lance bit his lip, “As high as we can get.”

They knew what they had to do. Two stones each. They shoveled through the muddy sand at edge of the roots, the waves limited their area.

Suddenly, Keith gasped, “Our lions.”

Lance's jaw dropped. He forgot. His first instinct was to run back to Blue, sit in the cabin, and _beg_  the machine to turn back on.

But they couldn't do anything. If they couldn't guarantee their own safety, they certainly couldn't guarantee the lion’s. Keith teleported from his side half way across the beach, sprinting like a madman.

Lance yelled after him to no anvil. He wasn't even going the right way.

“Keith!” He tried to yell over the thunder, “Keith stop!”

Keith did not stop. Either the low rumbles in the air drowned out his voice, or Keith was just totally ignoring him. The second option seemed more likely.

Keith hurdled over wall after wall of branches, flew across strip after strip of beach. It was here somewhere and he would find it eventually… Wouldn't he?

His pace faltered to a jog, his lungs still sore and heavy from liquid. Eventually his feet stopped moving. He doubled over, hands on his knees. With every breath he fought to keep standing. He heard Lance trot over to him, winded.

“Keith!” He panted. The wet smack of his feet on the sand stopped right behind Keith. Lance grabbed his shoulder for support.

“There… There's nothing we can do.”

Keith's nails dug blood from his knee caps. The pain helped him drag his thoughts back into reality, “But… But if we don't, how will we get out of here? Off planet?”

The air caught in Lance's throat and he reeled backwards. _Not now_ , screamed a voice in his head.

“It won't matter if we don't live through it,” Lance choked out, “We have to go.”

The wave in the distance was getting closer, slowly but surely. Keith torn his nails out of his flesh and took one last, pained, look at the sand. Their heads bolted up at a split of lightning across the horizon, followed by a low rush of thunder that shook the very ground they stood on.

Keith pulled his stones out of his pocket and shielded his eyes from the rain to look up at the top of the monumental tree. The wet bark became rubbery and more resistant to being pierced in the rain, but the wood beneath it crumbled away with the slightest amount of moisture.

Keith went first, carving out a sutia lead path for Lance with his superior climbing skills. It wasn't a completely ideal set-up. Every time Keith moved a foot, a huge chunk of red splinter showered Lance. The sound of thunder closing in was unnerving. With every powerful tremor they felt the danger of being shaking from the vine like insects.

The wind picked up too. At their height it was even more violent than on the ground, tossing Keith's hair into his eyes and threatening to steal the clothes off their backs.

Lance heard the unmistakable, skin-prickling crack of a branch splitting from its trunk. He looked up wildly, praying they weren't in the splaying vine’s path. About twenty feet away from them, a massive branch spiraled to the ground, wiping anything in its path clean off the surface of the world.

Keith shot a terrified look at Lance, who gave his best reassuring smile and waved him along. The vine they were climbing leveled out to a horizontal plane. Keith hauled his body up, and dug his rocks deep into bark. Lance followed suit. They looked down at the short distance it had taken them ages to cover, and at the daunting climb ahead. The tidal wave was close enough were Lance could tell it was approximately the same size as the tree.

The gusts were so powerful Lance had to dig his nails into the grooves of the branch to keep from being flick of like a tick. Keith cupped his hands to be heard over the combined rush of the wind and thunder, “We have to move!”

Lance nodded even though he was sure Keith's eyes were shut against the wind too. They crawled toward the center of the structure. It provided slightly better cover from the elements, and the branches didn't thin out as quickly.

Once again gravity was working against them. All of Keith's muscles had to be forced to move. The muscles in his arms felt like machines whose gears were thirty second from falling apart. They wouldn't move properly. No matter how hard Keith pulled, his arms wouldn't move as far as they could. They were starting to feel numb again.

Below him Lance seemed to be having just as much trouble as Keith was. His hands shook with the sheer effort of clutching the rocks so tightly. One thought drove them onward; stop, die.

Keith looked down at the raging ocean. The tsunami was close enough to make out the lighter form of the foam, surging on top of it. The renewed horror drove Keith up faster and in turn Lance, who was determined to stay as close as possible to Keith's heels.

The branches began to thin, and with it the bark got thicker, tougher. The vines were still broader than people, but they were nothing compared to the roots at the base of the tree. Twigs adorned in leaves block their path, forcing them to maneuver oddly around the obstacles. Branches frequently fell from the canopy, a few came too close for comfort. The force of the tempest made the whole island sway under its rule. The precarious top branches of the tree provided the worst shelter anywhere.

In fact the only thing the canopy did provide shelter from was the inevitability of being swept away by the tsunami. Up here, it was slightly less inevitable.

The branch they had nailed themselves into, was wide enough to sit on. Rain poured down full force, only a thin layer of leaves to block the onslaught.

They had to be at least four hundred feet in the air, swinging methodically above the surf that had reached the base of the tree.

The wave was upon them now. It looked like it would hit less than fifty feet below them. And the impact was sure to be devastating. Lance stared mindlessly at the tree’s skin. The only thing keeping them tethered to the tree were their rocks embedded in the wood.

The cloud cover eclipsed all but a soft, eerie green glow from the sky. It was closing in. Lance didn't want to see it hit. He clamped his eyes shut and waited, in heart wrenching dread.

There was a boom of thunder, his eyes flew open to blinding white light and the world crashed around him. Tides with the force of cannons blasted up around them. The spray tore into their skin threatening to rip them from their perches. The surge punched the entire tree upward. Lance's stomach dropped as the branch slammed up and down from the force. His head pressed tightly against the vine, the feedback knocked into his skull. He heard the sound of splintering channeled through the wood. Everything was loud and violent for antagonizing minute. He had to constantly readjust his hands, keeping his grip so tight, blood pricked through his skin.

The harsher feelings subsided. A dull ache formed in his brain, as his eyes struggled back into focus. Beneath him, wave continued to climb up the trunk. The pitch black tides were still a good forty feet below them, churning up huge splinters and millions of tons of sand. Spray from the waves assaulted him along with the rain.

Lance's mind fought to understand what he'd just experienced. Minutes felt like years. His body turned to look for Keith behind him. He was there, face wide with shock.

Keith's head was in disarray. He drew in deep breaths, and focused on the sound of the heartbeat heavy in his ears.His eyes found Lance. In one piece. He tried to sit up. At the moment his arms were about as useful as deadweights tied behind his back. Wind battered his newly bruised face. His pupils picked out Lance's form from the dark mass of leaves behind him.

The rain was dying to a sputtering, making room for the aggression of the sea. Keith scooched toward Lance at the pace of a snail. It felt like it took him days to reach Lance's side.

“Lance.” His voice shook.

Lance turned to face him. The muscles in his arms spasmed with effort. His eyes were shut, brows furrowed. Worst of all he wore a broken smile. A painful twisted shape with quivering lips.

Keith's eyes widened, he moved to speak. Lance spoke first, “This is it.”

Keith wasn't sure he heard him at all. Lance's entire figure was shaking as he turned to stare at the rapids.

“This is it.” His face pulled into an antagonized scrunch to hold back tears. “We- We're… We’re going to die here.”

A rush of terror griped Keith's body. Lance's eyes started to stream, added to generously by the rain. He held his bottom lip between his teeth, still wearing a sick form a smile while his eyes pinched miserably. Keith couldn't speak.

The words were tight in his throat, “We're going to spend the rest of our lives here. We can't leave. We can never go home again.”

Lance coughed, his face pulled tighter forcing more tears out of his closed eyes. “I… I'll- I'll never see my family again.” His hands ripped bark of the wood from the force of his grip.

Tears ran down his nose, “I wonder- what,” he choked, “I wonder, what the last thing I said to them was.”

Keith's eyes were brimming with tears now. He couldn't move his lips. He could not look at Lance. Not when he was suffering like that. He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve any of this, and yet here he was. With someone as useless as Keith.

“Did- Did… I even tell them I love them? Before I left for school?”

Lance melted into the bark, his arms released their painful grip on the bark. Keith could hear his deep shaky breaths over the wind. His body looked limp like corpse.

He turned his head to the side, Keith could see the dull sparkle in his eyes. The voice he heard was not Lance's, “At least I'll have you.”

Lance might as well have slashed him across the face. He moved to get up, to reach for Lance, show him that he was here. Keith let go of the only hold he had on the tree. One knee supported his weight, as he moved grab Lance hand.

The wind roared at him, shook him, and like a line and hook caught his stray limbs. He gasped. Lance's head shot up, eyes wide and cloudy. The air did not catch him.

For the longest moment in his life,Keith watched Lance's hand spring out. Their fingertips met, tangled, lurched, and fell through. Then it was fast forward. He blinked and Lance's face was a mile a above his. The water caught him.

He shot under the surface. A whirlpool of currents turned him over and over until he couldn't tell which way was up. Everything happened so fast. He kicked, felt his foot swipe through air, and flipped over. Water clawed down his nostrils, and flooded his brain with the crash of waves.

His arms were so limp he couldn't begin to fight the current. All he could do was pray for chance to breath.

The feeling of being suffocated was so much different than before. The water attacked him, trying to rip his head apart. The waves scrambles his brain, smashed in his skull.

He took a single breath before a riptide grabbed his leg and pulled. His head ached with the pressure of depth. He peeked through his eyelids. Above him the surging of foaming waves consumed all light. It was almost peaceful, being dragged down into calm water. The action of the tides above him almost soothing. Air bubbles leaked from his nose. His eyes shut again, overwhelmed by darkness.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah I kinda made myself cry writing this chapter, (mostly to get an accurate description of crying but that's not the point). I feel so bad cause I was reading the comments with my chapter plan in mind, and I was like "haha shit I'm taking away everything my readers were happy about I am a horrible person." (Ps sorry for the cliffhanger)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys seriously have to stop comparing me to a professional author cause then I'll want to write book. I don't have time to write a book!!! I barely have time to write this! Anyway, Enjoy!

Everything was numb. It was like his senses had been turned off he couldn't hear anything, feel anything, do anything. But he could see.

And everything was blue. Everything.

Just one solid color. He turned his head to the left. Blue, cut in half by a slightly different shade of blue. He turned his head to the right.

Once again he was met with the humid air and pale blue. But there was something else there, small and blurry.

He narrowed his eyes. It was like a dull sunrise. Darker, cooler, more colorful, and closer. Close enough to touch. A huge luminescent sphere, just a sliver of it above the horizon. A huge shining hunk of crystals, pink, and yellow, and cyan blue.

A single word registered in Keith's head… ~~~~~~~~_moon_. His head. The sounds in his brain buzzed like distant ambulance sirens after a car wreck. The sun like a hospital light in his eyes, forced them closed.

He had a headache. A full body ache, mind numbing pain and grogginess, that dulled the sense. His limbs felt like they were tied to a stretcher, like he was preparing for anesthesia. He would have wanted it. Gladly accepted it. The relief. The quiet dreamless sleep. The kind that actually felt like rest, rather than the mind-scrambling flashes of dark nightmares, that plagued his sleep last night.

Keith took a deep breath, feeling his senses flow through his veins,and the pin that came with it. The breath shook him. As sensation returned to his spine, he felt the dulled down prick of needles in his back. A soundless groan formed in his chest. He spread his fingers, and pressed his hand down, with intention to sit up no matter how antagonizing.

His hand meet the space where the ground should have been, and floated right through. There was a small splash, cool liquid flowing between his fingers. He felt something else. Big, rubbery and veiny. And something else, rough and pointy and solid. He tilted his head to the side, not possessing the will to try to sit up again.

The sound of water sloshed into his ear. Water. A vast blank desert of water stretching out in every direction in front of his eyes. Just like a desert, as hot, and as unforgiving. Laying here, on god knows what, with the sun bleeding through his skin, it might as well have been a desert. In the place of sand dunes, there were small peaks of the crest of waves in the distance. The yellow sun, too big, and to real in the sky, shine across the moon, giving it the radiance of a star. No forgiving desert winds blew the heat out of his face and sand into his eyes. There was the emptiness, the miles of nothing to get in the way of everything lovable, everyone lovable. No shelter, threat of death with every breath of boiling air.

This was Keith's desert.

He let the sun melt his skin, warm up his brain for him, so he could think again.

It didn't.

Sweat laced his forehead. His headache persisted, ebbing away at his few rational thoughts. He wanted so badly to go back to sleep, but he couldn't. Not with the hot red glow of the sun through his eyelids, and the nerve racking bounce of the currents below him.

Keith needed to get up. The dryness in his mouth begged him. But the spinning,the dizziness, and the head rush, stole away all his will to move. His brain felt like a liquid pulp. Until his head tipped automatically, and a small ocean dripped out of his ear.

In the distance, the horizon became a fuzzy white, from the sheer amount of nothingness. He thought to look down. His hands were using branches to support him. Below him, just inches below the surface, the canopy. The canopy of the tree swayed like it would in the wind. The water was clear. Crystal clear.

Keith could see down to the sandy floor, like he was looking down through a glass panel, four-hundred feet in the air.

Impossible. Keith's mind sensed the wrongness, the inexplicability. Yet here he was. Sitting a mile above the spot where'd he'd be sitting yesterday.

Yesterday.

Yesterday. Had that even been yesterday? Keith closed his eyes again. He'd not been prepared for the planet’s bright scenery. Thoughts and memories flashed behind his eyelids, creating an incomplete jigsaw puzzle in his mind.

He remembered the storm, the rain, the water, and the wind. And the wave. The pain that came with it. A force that could tear a human being apart, without even touching it. He saw Lance like a dream. Breaking, shattering under pressure not made for the likes of man. Lost in a state of mind beyond hopeless, beyond fear of death, beyond fear of the physical kind.

Once again, Keith's eyes forced themselves open, a single image branded into their retinas.

Lance. Where was he? Where was _here_?He had to be close.

The scene before him was a strange one. Clumps of leaves just sprouting above the surface, each one with the potential to hide his friend.

Keith saw him. Lance. Face up at the sky, floating atop a bushel of leaves. He didn't move, not disturbing a molecule of water beneath his limbs.

Keith's thoughts left his sore body behind in a race to asses the state of Lance, laying motionless.

He could be dead. He could just be sleeping. Or he could be  _ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~dead._

At last his legs would move again. Unwilling to do so, but Keith had never cared less about his physical state less in his life. He moved to crawl toward Lance, so far, but _right there_. His hand meet the canopy and fell through, the rest of his body plowing through with him. He gasped too late, water filling his throat and wide eyes. Sharp branches caught him, pinned him in place. They forced him to use any energy he had left to untangle himself to breath again.

Something caught the hem of Keith's shirt. It wrenched him upwards. Scratches marked his skin where the twigs had claimed him, and scarlet drops faded into the tides. Keith blinked the stinging water out his eyes, they were sore and so, so dry.

He found Lance through the blur. Lance with a trademark expression of deep-rooted concern on his face, and new bruises and cuts to match. Keith felt like sighing in relief, or crying, or most likely collapsing again, this time with Lance to catch him. But he didn't have the energy.

Lance struggled to support Keith, his feet threatening to slip with every movement. Nothing could take this from him.

“Keith…” His voice quivered.

Keith nodded, sober as ever, but oh so tired. He had nothing to say besides, “Lance.”

Lance hugged him, pulled him in close. He had a death grip on the fabric on Keith's back. They said nothing, as there was nothing to say. Even with the vague memories Keith possessed, he could muster the sense to be grateful to be alive. And especially to be grateful that Lance was alive. He rested the bridge of his nose on Lance’s shoulder. His scent was a kick in the teeth. A newly realized addiction, to a feeling. A rare feeling, of comfort and safety. Safety in the constant peril of real, true, survival.

His arms found the strength to return Lance's embrace. He would comfort Lance if it was the last thing he did.

They sat in the shallows, collecting themselves. Keith spoke first.

“What… What happened?” Keith knew it was to much of a question to answer, but he was sure Lance could find something.

To be fair, it took Lance a minute. A couple minutes. For once Keith didn't mind waiting.

“You fell.” They knew that, but Lance really couldn't wrap his mind around it, “I… I tried to grab you, but you still fell…” His eyes looked lot.

“I jumped in after you,” he whispered, “I didn't even think about it… I just saw you hit the water and you… you didn't come back up. I-I had to.”

Keith blinked at him. Lance never ceased to amaze him.

Lance started again, “I couldn't see anything. It was dark, a-and so… intense. I didn't think I'd be able to find you again.”

Lance's arms shook beneath Keith's fingertips. He hadn't even noticed his hands hovering over Lance's wrists.

“I was so scared. I thought I might never see you again. You could have died, and I- and I almost could have saved you… Almost…”

Lance felt on the verge of tears but he didn't cry. Because Keith was here. Because he did save Keith. Because everything he dreaded was just an if.

“I found you. And it was impossible to swim but I made sure your head stayed above water. The tide was rising so fast… I dragged us over to a branch, but I couldn't sit in because the water level kept going up. It got to the top of the tree. I was so exhausted.” He paused.

His laugh was sick, twisted even, “And all I thought about was that if the water rose above the tree… We'd die.”

Lance wiped his nose, “I finally caught a break,” he smirked.

It broke Keith, to see Lance, of all people, acting indescribably wrong. His eyes looked heavy no matter how bright his smile truly was. He bore the weight of underlying hopelessness. Even though he was happy, and Keith could tell, he was, there was something heavy in his eyes that just wouldn't go away.

Keith didn't dare ask what was wrong. That never helped anyone, forcing things out too fresh and raw. So Keith let himself be happy, just for a little while, he could afford to be happy in the middle of this madness. He deserved it. They deserved it. Lance deserved it.

“Thank you,” Keith whispered. And he meant it. He meant it for way more than this one thing. But he'd never know how to tell Lance that. For now “thank you” would have to do.

They didn't say anything to each other for a while. They didn't need to. What they needed was each other's company. To know that they would face all of this together.

They sat together. Close enough to constantly reassure the other of his presence. Lance stared of into the moon. The colorful lights reflected off the surface of the water into the atmosphere, creating a pleasant, heavenly glow in the thick air.

Lance made a small gesture at the moon, “I can't believe something something so beautiful did this.”

The silver of crystal floated harmlessly on the surface of the planet. Keith moved his eyes away from the irresistible shimmering, “What do mean?” He blinked.

Lance swept his arms out, gesturing to the entire plane of ocean, “This,” Lance said, “The water. The moon’s so close… It pulled all the water- probably all the water on the planet- over to this side. The gravity, you know. The water follows the moon… Just like on earth,” he added softly.

Keith pursed his lips, and trained his gaze into the ocean. Lance seemed to take it for confusion.

“On earth,” he began, “the moon’s pretty far away, but it still controls the waves. And the tide, like high tide and low tide.” He looked over to the moon again with frustration, “I don't even think it's as big as our moon. But it's so close…”

Lance bit his cheek, lost in thought. The branches swayed underneath them in an invisible breeze. Keith found himself newly uncomfortable. The entire back of his body was soaked. Water dripped down his neck, and branches stabbed his legs. A few tiny fish shrimp like fish hovered by his feet, assessing his calloused toes. Steam rose in thin trails off the sea, boiled in the full exposure of the sun. Keith felt like he was boiling too. Lance seemed pretty content, minus his mental baggage.

“What should we do?” Keith poked at the swarm near his feet and they fluttered away at the disturbance.

Lance blinked at Keith, a dumbfounded look on his face. He threw his thumb towards a point in space behind Keith. When Keith turned around he felt stupider than he'd ever felt in his life.

The tree. The huge spiraling, perfectly constructed tower of vines sat tall in the distance. From what he could tell, the surf had only swallowed about half of the entire structure. And even then, it towered above anything in existence on the entire world. The gem encrusted in its center sparkled with brilliant rainbows of color, mainly pink, in the combined sun and moonlight. Only half of the crystal was visible above the waves, but it remained the most distracting object in sight.

Keith gaped at it. How could he have forgotten something of that scale. How breathtaking it was. The sheer majesty.

But it was still so far. The distance seemed impossible to swim from the get go, never mind in the condition Keith was in. Lance however, didn't seem at all deterred. He looked at the mass with a scarce hope in his desolate eyes.

A small panic flared in Keith's heart. He really did not want to swim that, but he'd drown before he'd tell Lance that. To Keith's dismay his condition was much more obvious than he expected.

Lance stuck his finger to his chin, contemplating.

“How are we going to get you across?” He wondered aloud.

Keith paled. Did he look that bad? He held up his hands. They looked fine, pruney if anything. He ran his hands over his face. It felt fine, maybe a couple bruises, a bit of dehydration. Nothing time and care wouldn't fix.

Keith looked down at the water, hoping to catch his reflection. Instead, the water was so clear his gaze just drifted down to the calm ocean floor. Puzzle pieces clicked together in Keith's mind… If there was a storm last night… Why was the water so calm? How has the sand already collected?

With horror in his eyes, Keith caught Lance's gaze, “Lance… How long was I out?” He measured each word carefully, dreading the answer.

Lance froze. His fingers twiddling on his chin. He mumbled something into his hand. Keith leaned forward. Lance avoided his eyes at all costs.

Keith touched his wrist, “Lance…”

His face contorted with effort. Lance sighed and slid his hand off his lips. “A couple days,” he mumbled.

Terror paralyzed Keith. Lance wouldn't look at him. His lips trembled, but Lance covered them. He shielded his hands with his face. With one eye he snuck a glance at Keith.

“I thought,” he swallowed, “I-I thought… you, were d-dead.” He wasn't crying. He was shaking, trying so hard to smile.

A new siege of fear gripped Keith. Lance's eyes were so red, so dry. His lips were chapped, and scabbed over. Keith was furious with him. He looked terrible, on the brink of dehydration. His limbs seemed to tremble with just the mere effort of moving.

Eyes wide with concern, Keith grabbed Lance's shoulders, “Why didn't you go? You haven't eaten or drank anything in days! Are you insane? _You_  could've died. Then it wouldn't even matter how dead or alive _I_ was.”

A few tears ran down Lance's face. He kept wiping his nose, determined not to say a word. Lance was turned away from him, but Keith's grip forced to remain intact.

“We have to go.” Keith whispered.

Lance smeared hands over his eyes and nodded. They had to go but they had no way to get there. He noticed how Lance continued to shake even after he calmed down. His body looked weak, soaked but dry. They couldn't swim.

Lance gritted his teeth at the ocean. Below them light touched even the sand. It glittered over something metal. Something that Lance couldn't look at without dry heaving.

His lion. The blue lion. Swallowed up partially by sand. A group of large grey fish swarmed around it. They were big enough to be seen from such a height. They would have to leave the lions behind. Or die.

Lance couldn't bear to point it out to Keith. He didn't have the strength. Instead, Lance reached out to him, trying his hardest not to vomit.

“You're sword,” he choked out, “Can I see it?”

Confused, Keith unhooked his bayard from his belt, and summoned the blade with a flick of his wrist. Lance took it carefully. The tide loomed close to the sword, but neither doubted anymore that their bayards could indeed get wet.

He dove under, and wrestled his way through the canopy. The shimmer of his weapon in the sun told Keith where he was, but not what he was doing. It felt like an impossible amount of time before Lance resurfaced. And before Lance came, a huge slab of bark did, rushing to the surface. It knocked Keith back into the shallows, where he almost slipped through the thick bed of leaves.

Lance came after snapping twigs as he went. As soon as he hit the surface he gasped for breath. Even with his alien like swimming abilities, he had limits.

Keith sure hoped this stupid piece of wood was worth the heart attack it gave him.

“Wha… What?” Gasped Keith.

“Boat,” Lance replayed simply, between breaths.

Keith grabbed the raft before it could float away. It was about as long as a person, but not as wide, and it curled up at the edges. Keith doubted it would support either of their weights.

He looked to Lance, who was on his hands and knees still trying to catch his breath. The leaves shifted under his weight.

They went on their way. The boat finally balanced with both of them on it, though just barely. The first three tries had not been as successful. Lance kneeled in the back. He used a leafy branch as a paddle. Keith sat cross legged in the front. He tried his hardest not to move, but movement below the surface kept catching his eye.

Looking through the water was like looking down at the world's largest aquarium. Pristine, crystal clear water, gave way to the soft pastel sand, hundreds of feet below. It was truly a sight to behold. Swarms of near millions of fish gathered in the space between the surface and seafloor. Some were glittery blue, others dull, and pale brown, but most were a shimmery silver, their scales reflecting the light of the sun back with almost equal intensity. A trail of roots, twisting in and out of each other, marked their path.

In the new found space there were fish Keith had never seen before. Huge dusty brown fish with bodies like snakes. They swam by twirling around, and spinning their coils like a fan. Keith guessed the could be as wide a trees. It was hard to tell from the height he observed at.

At the surface, forest green fish, as thin as a piece of paper, broke through, possibly to breath. A couple times Keith mistook them for leaves until they jumped out at his fingertips.

Something eerie and dark crawled along the seafloor in the shadow of the raft. It had god knows how many legs, and a round body like a spider. It looked like just that; a giant sea spider. Again, Keith assumed it must be fairly large. Needless to say, he was disturbed.

The leafy branch-for-a-paddle proved ineffective. Lance jumped into the water behind the boat. The only reason Keith even noticed was because Lance came far too close to flipping the boat upside down.

Keith yelped. His automatic assumption was that Lance fell in. He was clumsy enough as it was.

“Lance, are you ok? Keith fought not to laugh as he resurfaced.

Lance wiped away the hair plastered to his forehead, “What? Yeah.” Something registered in his brain, “You didn't think I fell, did you?”

“No,” Keith lied. He turned back to look at the water, trying to appear as inconspicuous as possible. Lance sunk below the surface, going unnoticed. There was a thud of something hitting the underside of the raft. Perplexed, Keith leaned over the edge. Too late.

Lance offset the weight, and sent Keith tumbling into the calm sea. When Keith finally caught his bearings enough to resurface, Lance snorted at him, “Oops, did you fall in Keith?”

The water stung the cuts on his face he didn't know he had, “Haha, good one shithead. Original as ever.”

Lance swam back to the backside of the boat while Keith struggled to scale the curved edges. They weren't making very good progress toward their destination. The island still felt ages away at their pace. And the branch-paddle sat inside the shelter of the boat, unused. Keith looked over to see what Lance was even doing and felt that the boat was indeed moving. Lance had his arms and chin draped over the the side of the boat where the slope was the gentlest. He was swimming, pushing the boat along like a human propeller.

Keith blinked at him, “Won't you get tired of that?”

Lance shrugged, “Probably,” he gestured to the paddle onboard, “Why don't you help me out?”

Paddling with that thing was much harder than Keith had expected. It's leaves resisted against every push, and if Keith didn't keep switching sides it would just push the boat in circles. Plus, now he couldn't watch the enthralling views of the ocean. At least, not as well. The angle he viewed the water at, made the sun glare of the waves, too bright to see through.

His body ached. It yearned not to move. But Keith realized that Lance was in an equally dismal state, and he was swimming.

They pushed along, slowly but surely. The took frequent breaks Lance even insisted that it would be fine if Keith wanted to take a nap, but he just scoffed, “I slept for like three days, screw that, you take a nap.”

Unsurprisingly, Lance did not. By the time the sun had crested over the center of the sky, the island seemed like a reachable goal. It's shade looked so promising. Keith had never hated a sun more in his life. Both of them had striped down to just their shorts. Lance even looked like he was contemplating taking those off, which Keith was in mental turmoil over.

They were drenched with sweat, if not water. Even Keith succumbed to diving into the cool relief of the ocean, although he no longer trusted it not to swallow him up.

Keith sat in the raft and halfheartedly worked the paddle. Lance was trucking along behind him.

There was a huge rumble, loud and rough like thunder. Keith looked up to see no clouds in sight. The sun mocked him with it's heat.

There was another roar, sharper, closer. Lance ceased moving. Keith felt the boat sway under him, and not just from Lance's added wieght joining him. Again the rumbling came. It vibrated across the surface of the water. Keith heard it echo through the deep. It came from below them, somewhere, hidden by depth. The water swirled, viable waves peaked around them.

Lance searched the water. The animals had gone, the seafloor suddenly barren. He saw a shadow. It crept over the curve of the planet in silence. The colors were muted by distance, and all  
Lance could see was a large blue-gray shape. _Enormous_  blue-gray shape.

Nothing that could be seen from that distance was small. It's cry came again, like a whale song in some aspects, but deeper, more overwhelming. It reminded Lance of a foghorn.

It had scales. Huge silver scales, like old plates of battle-worn armor. The plates shifted as it swam, thrashing it fan like tail up and down slowly. In between the layers of shell, sapphire blue light flowed through the overlaps,m. And diamond shaped panels that lined the monster’s sides. It was much bigger than a whale, but looked like a battleship-style goldfish. Except instead of a harmless puckered mouth it had a chasm. It's mouth would part open slightly, as water filtered through it’s many gills.

The fish’s tail pushed up and down like a dolphin’s, creating a surge above its body. They watched the waves move closer and the beast became more visible. It glowed. It filled the sea with vibrant blue shadows, that leaked through the surface. As it moved under them, the two were surrounded by a beacon of blue light.

The fish crawled along the sand. Besides its elegant tail, it had claws. The fins at its side swept out into thin and razor sharp fingers that torn through sand, root and even rock, embedded in the seafloor.

Lance and Keith leaned over opposite sides of the raft, balancing it out as it swayed. They watched the fish swirl around beneath them. The shadow of the raft looked small on its back.

Lance spotted the eyes on its head; two on each side and two on top. They were big, glassy, and completely black. It's mouth opened all the way, and the whole ocean seemed to drop from the gap in space. And of course it had teeth. Huge thin canines with serrated edges, that filled every corner of it's mouth.

It's claws twisted up the sand, it's tail slammed down, and the monster launched itself above the waves. The tide parted at its breach. It knocked the boat over and then some, sending both boys plummeting into the sea.

Keith couldn't move. He was caught in a whirlpool, his limbs to stiff to fight back. He held his nose, tried to figure out which way was up. There was light, intense and bright. Keith swam towards it only to feel an increase of the pressure in his ears. The monster danced below him, sucking him down, failing to lure him with its charm.

It's mouth looked like an entrance to hell. On slice from those teeth could tear a planet to shreds. Keith spun around, his nose filled with water. He made a beeline for the surface, so far away.

Keith saw Lance above him, he strained to get to the surface. Then Keith noticed the vortex swelling around him. If he could just get out of it. It felt like clawing his way out of a black hole. For every stroke forward he was pulled back twice the distance.

His lungs burned again. Along with his muscle. He couldn't keep going. Then his hand hit cold, still water. Keith felt like he could reach out and grab it. He was thrown from the whirlpool. Sent flying into the sea by the currents. Stray beams of white light lend him back upwards, where he exploded into the air. Water streamed out of his nose.

Immediately, Keith's eyes searched for Lance, even through the choking and struggling. He saw the raft. Or what was left of it. About half of it floated in the distance and Keith went to it. It barely supported his weight, and bobbed below the surface.

Even from his vantage point he couldn't see Lance. Even though he just saw him. The tides still surged downwards, and spun into the depths.

Keith's head spun. The colors blurred together in his head. His headache was back, earsplitting and disorienting. There were spots of brown churned up in the water. Keith hope they could have been pieces of the boat. He hoped Lance was on was on one. His lungs were still bogged down, dragging his mind with it.

Keith collapsed into the water. The raft supported his head just enough. His arms felt to heavy to lift, like someone wove glass shards between the fibers. Every movement was painful, on the brink of ripping him apart.

Keith looked up at the dizzy sun that mocked him. And he couldn't will himself to stay awake under its gaze.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my original chapter plan I was actually going to let them rest but this went in a completely different direction. (Whoops)  
> Side note: please correct my typos I'm not a good editor


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * Shows up two week late without Starbucks* yeah sorry I can't explain. With the approach of school updates will unfortanetly take longer. I mean unless one of you wants to write an AP bio paper for me. That'd be great! Anyway... Enjoy!

Everything was gone. All of it. Gone. Nothing that should have been there was. Like a void in space it was just, empty.

 

Except for the water. It stretched on endlessly in all directions, giving way to absolutely nothing, nothing, and more nothing.

 

And of course the water held no secrets. Just a root, some rocks, a school of fish, and identical clumps of rocks, more fish.

 

There were two things in the entire ocean right now. Lance, and the meager remnants of what had once been a raft. Now it barely supported his upper body. There wasn't another fragment of the boat around for miles.

 

No branches or leaves that floated off nearby trees either. No trees. No land. Just the endless sky that stretched so far it turned the horizon a hazy white on the edge of the planet.

 

Lance had little recollection of what happened. Only swirling tides, and splintering wood filled his memories. There has been that fish. That leviathan, that sucked the very soul out the ocean. A terrifying, larger than life beast, was nothing compared to this. Emptiness comparable to the vacant vacuum of space. 

Except there were no stars in the distance, providing promises of new beginnings and adventure. No highly advanced alien technology to protect him from the elements. No hope.

 

This was true hopelessness. And even in the on thing that had brought Lance comfort on this miserable hunk of rock. The water felt foreign. The ocean had betrayed him too many times, and now it seemed to want to drain the very life out of him as well. The feeling of approaching death was no longer a rush of fear, and a stab in the chest. It was just dread, that slowly bundled in Lance’s mind the closer and closer it came.

 

Time was a far gone concept. It seemed like such a silly thought that he ever even kept track of it. What a luxury.

 

Time was doing one hell of a number on his body. Draining his energy, breaking his mind. The dryness in his throat was so unbearable, he forced down mouthful of rotten sea water, and tried his best to keep them down. Lance was dehydrated, starving, but he didn't even care. 

 

He couldn't care less about the state of his body when he had no idea if Keith was dead or alive. He was the only thing Lance had left. The only goddamn thing. And Lance would die before he let the ocean take that too. He had watched Keith fade beneath the surface, towards that… hate to hell. Diving after him would have been suicide even if he could've spotted Keith again among the torrent. So of course, Lance had done it anyway. 

 

The vortex made it impossible to see with streams of fuzzy bubbles flying in every direction. His muscles fought against the downwards pull of the spiral, but not well enough. He sunk. The pressure in his head excruciating, but the swirl stopped. Lance had felt his head numbing away, but had just enough sense to scramble to the surface. 

 

He was lucky to even grab the small piece of the boat he managed, it was so obliterated. In his last moments of consciousness, with water pouring from his lips, he could not find Keith. Not above the water. But when he just briefly looked into the depths, he saw a pale flash of limbs. Moving or not, he couldn't tell.

 

That was all he remembered. When he woke, there was undoubtedly, nothing. His back felt seared by the sun, his headache unparalleled, and only one thing on his mind; Keith.

 

___

 

A knock to the head woke Keith. He panicked, tried to hit back, and collapsed gracelessly, into a shallow tide pool. The first thing Keith noticed when he realized he that was indeed  not  being attacked, was the rough grain under his palms. It was bark .  Then there was the unmistakable comfort that only shade could provide. But he couldn't confirm that lying face down in a pool of sand. His arms didn't want to move, but they never did any more, so it made no difference to Keith.

 

When his head lifted, and his eyes watered the sand away, he was greeted with the welcoming sight of branches, and the leaves that splayed from their ends. He sighed and let his guard down again. His head fell back into the shallow water. He had the unmistakable feeling of waking up after sleeping for far too long.

 

No matter how long he had slept, he could still sleep a decade longer. When he passed out, it was never certain. Could've been hours, days even and he wouldn't have known.

 

Memory hit him like slap to the face.  Lance  was all he thought, all he felt. Keith went under, and he saw Lance’s legs fluttering along, but then as soon as he surfaced… gone. Just like everything else. Gone. Swallowed by the ocean. 

 

Keith got up. It was the hardest thing he ever had to do, but he was standing. A powerful head rush overtook him. His eyes went spinning into the back of his head, and his head hit the wood again with a splash. The dizzyness knocked all his thoughts out. He curled over the water and vomited, unsurprised to see it was just more water.

 

To weak now to move, Keith managed to prop his upper body on a vine. For the first time in weeks the sky looked pleasant. There were even a few clouds. They looked fluffy and welcoming so close to the surface. 

 

The pool he sat in was formed by sand and rocks jammed between the scoop of branches and vines, jetting outwards from the tree. 

 

The tree .

 

The one good thing he got from his swarming thoughts, was that he had indeed made it to the towering tree. Without Lance here with him, it felt like a very meaningless accomplishment. The only reason Keith was even alive right now was Lance. And now they couldn't even rejoice in their safety together, because, once again, Lance could be dead.

 

He was so sick of it. The fear. The unholy fear that would consume his soul until the moment his eyes meet Lance’s again. It scared Keith, how much the thought of Lance being dead scared him. He found himself thinking that if he never saw Lance again, even if he was treated to the sweet release of rescue, he would gladly sit here and wait for Lance to come back before he dare move a muscle. And if Lance never did, then he found himself preferring the idea of staying in the spot till he died.

 

At the same the time, the pro-active part of Keith's consciousness begged him to get up. To go look for Lance, to find him or die trying.

 

Keith lay there, unable to do anything but feed his anxiety and terror. He came to the conclusion that if he was to weak to move he couldn't save Lance. So he forced himself to move. With shaky hands he pulls his bayard from his shorts, the blade glistened in the steady sunlight. He sliced the bark next to his face, nothing happened. A brief pain overtook him, until he sliced the crack again, deeper. Life-giving water poured from it.

 

It took Keith time to move again after that. He could have slept for another night, another night and a day, he didn't know. How ever long it was, it was too long. Every second was another Lance was not with him, weak and in constant danger.

 

The sun was high in the sky once again, and boiling everything in its path. Keith’s golden skin barely noticed anymore, but the long hairs sticking to the back of his neck sure did. His shirt had seen better days. String peeled from the seams, and tears littered the fabric. And Lance’s jacket was still tied too tightly around his waist. Keith felt like he could do at least one thing right, saving Lance’s jacket like that.

 

To Keith's surprise he found the energy to stand. This time the head rush was bearable. Still disorienting, but bearable. With it came hunger so powerful that Keith momentarily keeled over. 

 

The bark of the vines here was thicker there, and more gray. Keith had to use real effort to plunge his sword deep enough to extract anything.  Water and sap poured out as appetizing as ever. With the mass of vines available around him, Keith thought the wound would close much sooner than it did.

 

He was standing again. Alive, and well… alive. But he had no idea what to do beyond that. In one direction sat an immeasurable field of water, and in the other stood an unscalable wall. It might have been scalable if Keith was in his prime. God he felt old.

 

He decided to go along the shore. The shore being the slopes of branches that disappeared under the surface. Keith often had to swim from branch to branch. And even then most of what he could get a hold of he couldn't stand on. The air felt thinner, every breath Keith took felt unsatisfying but he couldn't pinpoint why. At least the gravity once again felt just a bit lower.

 

Keith proceed on from ledge to ledge. Every time he looked up he felt as though he hadn't made an inch of progress around the circumference of the tree. Then he realized, as usual, he had no idea what he was doing.

 

He had no plan. He had just assumed if he started to move something would happen. Maybe he'd find Lance.  But at his pace, searching the whole tree would take decades. And if Lance was there, he would wake up and probably start moving too. Then they could get caught in a round about, chasing each other but making no progress. That was, if Lance was even on this tree. He could have washed up somewhere else, unconscious and alone. Or, of course he could be dead

 

Keith hated that he had to consider the thought. Maybe just this once, he could flatter himself, and pretend that Lance absolutely, without a doubt, was alive.

 

With that in mind, he still had few options. He could push forward, take days, maybe weeks, to do a perimeter check. He could stay here, live off the tree until Lance found him. Keith didn't pretend that was an option for long. There was no way he’d be able to stay there long without losing his mind. 

 

He could make a raft from bark like Lance did. That would be a possibly quicker form of transportation and if he didn't find Lance he could search the ocean until he did. Something cracked above his head.  The tree . He could try to climb up it. He’d be able to see for miles in every direction. It felt so promising. But the problem was Keith really didn't want to climb. He was in no condition to climb either. At this point, neither of those reasons would stop him. He just had to figure out how to get up there, so many hundreds of feet in the air.

 

There was no sandy shore to comb for rocks. No ledges of crumbling quartz in sight. The only thing he had was his sword and two hands. 

 

He had no time to waste. Every second was a second the idea of Lance drifted further away.

 

So he dug his knife into the bark and hoisted his body up. His free hand struggled to get a grip on the rough bark. The calluses on his hands made it easier to tolerate the grooves digging into his skin. Once Keith could support himself with his one hand, he pulled the sword out and did it again. And again. And again. 

 

Although every time he moved it was way too hard, he pushed on. He couldn't turn back now, he had gone to far. Far enough where the fall would probably kill him, but on the scale of tree, he’d moved meer inches. The top did not get closer. Not after minutes, not after what felt like hours. The exhaustion, he couldn't keep going, not in this state. There was a single fork in the branches ahead. It was the closest by far, but an unreachable distance.

 

Keith was trembling, trying to convince himself that it was from exhaustion alone, that he was not scared that gravity would win this fight. His hand sweated so much the blade felt hot and slimey in his grasp. He’d not been using his legs to push enough, his arms became brittle every pull upward threat to snap his muscles like tight  rubber bands. 

 

At least thirty minutes. Thirty minutes it took him to hall his ruined body to safety, each felt like it could be his last. But his body did that incredible thing again. Where in moments of overwhelming pain and struggle, in moments where death loomed at the very corners of his eyes, he fought back, subconsciously, and violently. Adrenaline was a thing of beauty. It let him make it up here, it saved his life. But in the span of time where a fear of heights seemed realistic, his thoughts were swamped with everything to live for.

 

Like, the feeling of wind on his face, and stars in his eyes. Like the comfort of dusk, or the thrill of fighting. Like his new family. And maybe even the few who loved him. And of course,  of course , his face. The way his eyes crinkled when he smiled, and the deep brown of his sun-kissed skin. Of course he had to think about Lance. Of course he had to think about the only person he’d seen for months. Of course he did, even if there was something there or not. Even if there wasn't something he felt deep in his chest, there had to be something there for him. 

 

Keith let his gaze drift. There was a canopy far, far above him, and clumps of emerald leaves scattered in the space between it. Almost no sunlight filtered through the leaves. Light glowed through the leaves instead, and bathed the tangles of branches in a cool green shadow. The shadows were the coolest thing Keith had felt in decades. The problem with his newfound space was that he couldn't see far at all.

 

One direction was blocked by the rest of the mass of the tree, and the other just gave way to the small patch of horizon he could see before. And the worst part was that Lance was not a part of any of the views. Keith wanted to keep going desperately, but his body hadn't moved an inch since he sat down and he doubted he could will himself to move again. The sun was sinking toward the ocean. Darkness would be no help of his today.

 

So he let himself sleep. It was not guilt free, or not plagued with restlessness and anxiety, but it was sleep nonetheless.

 

___

 

Lance was faced with a horribly terrifying choice. Many horribly terrifying choices. In the form of directions, to be exact. He had an infinite number of directions to go, a full circle. And and he had to do it soon.  And  if he picked one of the hundreds of wrong ones, he would most certainly, starve, or drown, or be eaten, or die in some other equally unfavorable way. There was possibly more than one direction that would lead him to land, let him live another day, but only one would lead him to Keith.

 

He wanted to pick that direction so badly, he hardly cared how much more favorable any other direction could be. If there was an island half a mile behind him and Keith was a hundred miles in the other direction, he’d still go for the one with Keith.

 

Then of course there was the looming possibility that Keith was dead, which he wasn't considering right now cause he needed a goddamn break.

 

Procrastinating was not the right thing to be doing right now, but in the face of an impossible choice, he couldn't think of anything else to do. 

 

The ocean provided a perfect distraction to the hunger ebbing away at his insides. Imagining what the fish would taste like did not, but there was only so much sand and rocks to look at. Rocks, and rocks, and something clicked in his brain so violently it brought his headache back.

  
The tree roots. Tips of gray colored bark poked out of the sand. They looked almost indistinguishable from the rocks, but to Lance, they were unmistakably, a living thing. The further he swam the more that came into view. Promising tiny arches and branches, all twisting toward one spot. He couldn't see it yet, but there was only one tree whose roots could stretch that far. So Lance prattled off into the distance, until hunger wasn't even a feeling anymore.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of you should come say hi to me on Tumblr. I know you're there I know you read this, that's how you make cool friends I think. Don't be shy my amigos I love you all <3 <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I could list every reason why this chapter took so long, but I have been so busy these past weeks I forgot to eat sometimes. That sums it up pretty well. It's a long weekend so I hope to update again later this week. And don't worry! There no way I'm abandoning this project after all the support I've gotten! Enjoy!

Keith felt washed up. He woke to a white sunrise and a brain that felt like mush. There was There was strange mechanical pull every time his muscles lingered to far from their tendons. The joints in his arms would not straighten all the way. 

 

It was odd to wake up in such complete silence. No droning rain against the wet sand, or the tiny changes in the sounds of the waves. No groggy Lance to mumble a good morning to him as soon as his eyes opened. Lance always seemed to wake up first. Keith felt empty.

 

There was wind that moved ruffled the leaves, but they made no sound. Keith knocked on the wood next to his ear just to make sure he hadn't gone deaf. When he found he wasn't, he had only a few things to do before he inevitably started climbing again. The only positive Keith could bring himself to think of was the fact that there were considerably more place to rest higher in the tree, and while he didn't want to admit it, he would probably need to stop at all of them.

 

He pushed on, and winced every single time his sword sliced through the scabs on his hands. Blood dripped onto his wrists, then arms, but pain was just pain now. Blood was just blood. But it was also slippery. Keith draped himself over a branch that broke the structure of the tree. He wrapped his hands in cloth. It was from Lance’s old, chopped up clothing, that he had given to Keith because of his tendency to bleed. He pulled them from the pockets of Lance's jacket. They were dark and scratchy made of jean material. The cloth was filthy, probably infectious, but Keith didn't have much of a choice.

 

Red spots seeped through the fabric quickly and Keith moved on.

 

As he got higher, he put together new pieces in the puzzle that was the horizon. Unfortunately that puzzle had exactly one color; blue. But Keith knew there had to be more on the other side of the tree, and maybe it was just more blue, but hey, that was something. He made sure to scan the ground. In case Lance was trotting along the shore, calling his name. Or in case Lance washed up on the shore, half alive, but as lively as ever.

 

Nothing had showed up so far, but he’d only seen so many different views in the few new hours he been climbing. And he was so anxious to see what was around the corners of every branch. He could only go up, as there weren't many branches to move across.

 

It took him all day. All day to get a new piece of the world's most boring puzzle which again was just  blue . His hands were bleeding still. Splitters wedged under nails of his left hand, digging in deeper with every rip of his hand into the bark. The cloth on his hands was soaked through red now. The blood stained his skin, oozed out and dropped between his fingertips. It hurt just as much as his throbbing head and stiff limbs. 

 

Keith looked down on the ocean constantly from the dizzying height. Shadows of the formless schools of fish caught his eye, but the surface was barren. Except for the moon. It came half way above the surface, chasing Keith’s eye, reminding him of its betrayal.

 

A sturdy branch above beckoned him from far above. It lulled Keith with its promise of restless sleep. The sun was fading and with it Keith's will.

 

He couldn't take it. Going this far for nothing, having to go even farther again tomorrow for even less. It had to end sometime. Didn't it?

 

The sunset looked venomous, mocking him. Every second that ticked by, every heartbeat, another one where Lance could be dying. It was sicken, Keith didn't want to eat. His stomach begged otherwise, as did his thinning completion. Multiple comas tend to do that to people.

 

Keith groaned, liquid slipped onto his face from where his sword pierced the bark. It happened many times before that and would definitely happen again.  Keith pulled himself higher and pressed his mouth against it. He hadn't drank anything in hours, not that he hadn't been thirsty, but the repetitive motions made him lose touch with reality. 

 

Then his sword slipped through the cracks. Gravity ripped him from his perch. His nose slammed backwards into his skull, the bark pierced right through his lips and peeled away the skin on his chin. He daggled of the tree by one hand hanging loosely off of a single knot it the wood. The fingernails of his other hand snapped off, but most of the blood came from the splinters cutting through his palms. He tasted blood in his mouth, whether from his nose or lips he wasn't sure. All the air left his lungs. His free hand swing violently for his sword, Keith didn't even know how he got it that high. The water poured over the hand embedded in the bark. He scrambled for a foot-hold, anything to get him high enough to reach his sword. The blood, the water, would wash him away before he got it, Keith was sure of it.

 

He grasped for breath just as much as he grasped for his blade. Bark sliced through his foot, but he used it. Keith leapt, and  a moment he was suspended in air. Nothing separating him from death except four hundred feet and a sword at his fingertips. He grabbed the sword with both hands. It dug through the fabric but Keith already had too many scars to care. 

 

He needed to get to somewhere stable fast. His arms ached to reach upward, to pull his own weight. The branch above him, to the left was much farther away than it was thirty seconds ago. It might as well have been miles ahead, it was too slippery to move that far. 

 

Of course Keith went anyways even though it was the second most painful thing he d ever done in his life. He was programmed to never give up and it was exhausting. It would have been so much easier to let the ground catch him, watch the leaves rustle on the way down. His eyes were tired enough where they closed but he moved anyways. Survival was the only option.

 

Keith climbed for an hour, his muscles splitting as he went. He tasted the blood  constantly. Keith bite the split of his lower lip every time he moved his foot, opening the wound again and again. His hand met a surface above him. It was a thick branch and one of the most comforting things Keith ever felt.

 

He hooked his sword over the edge and heaved upwards. Keith held the vine so tight he felt like He he would pop. His limbs could wrap around the surface without meeting again. Keith took comfort in the vine’s width. He trusted very few inanimate objects lately.

 

After a few much needed minutes of rest, Keith turned to lie on his back, the branches above his splayed out into a crown of leaves with silver petals sprinkled throughout. There was movement. Not only of the wind, branches lurched under invisible weight. It was peaceful. Peaceful enough to seem like like earth.

 

The moon caught Keith's attention as always. It took on a pale orange hues when illuminated by the night sky. Keith could feel the intensity of the heat dwindling.

 

Sleep became, once again, hard to come by. Night became a time to worry again, like every claustrophobic second he spent trapped in that space ship. But here there were no walls closing in. There was fresh air to disrupt the hair on his face. There was the natural air of comfort that living things have off. So even though he worried, Keith found that he could sleep.

 

___

 

Lance hadn't stopped kicking for hours. Not drawn out seconds, feeling like minutes, but literal hours.  His legs felt like they were not his own, heavy and numb. But they still moved, so Lance moved them. He was past the point of consciousness, where he swam because it was the only thing he knew how to do. There was one thought locked in his brain, a single image. 

 

A tree more beautiful than anything he'd ever seen, even though the exact same one was etched into his memory somewhere recent. For once there were clouds in the skies, white, puffy and hanging low toward the sea. The leaves were clouded by distance, but it was the only thing Lance could see for miles. He’s seen nothing for so long, it actually felt close.

 

It wasn't. Not at all. Lance was in a delusional state of desperation that survival threw him into. He had no idea. He thought, just a few more minutes, just a few more… kicks.

 

Reality set in slowly, like the sun rising over Lance's dull brain. He would not be there in minutes. He might not even be there for hours or days. For the first time it dawned on him, that when he had woken up, he might have been asleep for longer than he realized. The light in his eyes faded. He was so hungry, so thirsty that his eyes would not focus.

 

He stopped moving. It was his only voluntary action in hours. The water soaked up the colors of the approaching sunset. Lance gazed below the surface. The scene below him was forever frozen, bathed in rays of tell daylight. It was still and quiet all the way to the ocean floor. Lance felt like he could be at peace down there. 

 

He missed the way the water felt when it wasn't sucking him dry of water, life, and everything else. His eyes felt so dry he had to close them.

 

Lance wasn't sure when the last time he slept was. He remembered vaguely seeing the reflection of the moon across the water bathed in darkness earlier. But that had been when he’d sighted the first shimmer of green leaves in the distance. That had been the last time he’d had a rational thought. Until now.

 

Now the only thoughts he could think, were how much his legs hurt, how much his, head hurt, how far away the glistening pink quartz was. Everything dawned on him at once. It was impossible. The tree was too far, he was too weak. There was a sudden snap of his eyelids, open and shut. And then he could barely get the open again. How long had he been awake?

 

The painick almost did it. It almost kept him awake. But the exhaustion won.

 

___

 

There was a new world in the tree. Life flourished there. Other plants grew out of every rip and tear between the branches. Plants were all they could be called. Some of them didn't look alive, but they would move. Breath slowly, and let out a puff of spores that rained down on the air like a sticky glitter. These plants, or whatever they were, curled away into their dark red shells when poked, Keith found.

 

It was cool beneath the branches and life flourished in the shade. Plants and animals alike. More than once a curiously life form hopped over to take a look at him. Most were small, shiny blue porcupines, no bigger than his hand. They had feathers tiny and spiky, in the place of quills. They looked at Keith with big black eyes that they licked frequently. 

 

They rattled as they walked along side Keith, their spiny little feathers shifted against each other. Their feet seemed to be suction cups, one for each of the four toes on each foot. Keith actually though there pretty cute.

 

Swarms of insects buzzed around Keith’s eyes. They looked more like dragons with four stretchy wings a piece. Their scales were a brilliant multitude of purples and golds faded together. Keith let his finger float into the centre of the swarm. It returned with a sparkly little beast wrapped around it like something out of a fairy tail. It quickly fluttered away, him purring as it went.

 

They bit. Their sharp teeth pierced through Keith’s skin again and again. These dragonflies were true to their name, unaware to Keith.

 

The next time he was curious enough to watch as the insect landed on his arm. It's eyes were small, with deep green irises that looked almost human in design. It really did looked looks like a miniature dragon, except it wings seemed to be another kind of stretchy membrane that resembled the ones of the bat’s. The beast circled his arm, it's scaly tail leaving faded marks on Keith’s skin. It cocked its head at him, and open its mouth to chirp, revealing the mouth of a miniature crocodile. Then  it bit him.

 

Blood swells out and the dragonfly lapped it up. Its spiny tongue dug deeper into the wound and left the spot feeling numb but sore. Keith shook it off but was careful not to squish it. He couldn't bring himself to kill something so ethereal.

 

But then there were hundreds, everywhere. The swarm enveloped him, and Keith had nowhere to run. They were much, worse than mosquitoes, their teeth dug into his skin from every direction. The vine hundreds of feet in the air was not exactly the best place to be flailing his limbs about, but he had to something. It felt like he was been eaten alive by pin needles.

 

Keith hated that  bugs were giving him this much trouble. Pest. Keith smacked them aside, felt their delicate bones snap against his hand. No matter how many he hit it didn't seem to make a difference. If Keith killed one two more took it's its place.  Hydras. 

 

Then they vanish, first slowly then it was almost as if they evaporated. Keith opened his eyes again. All of his bare skin was covered in holes, welling over with blood. Another dragonfly hovered in front of his face. Keith went to slap it. His hand almost reached it, but when it was sucked in the opposite direction.

 

The porcupines. Their sticky tongues flew out like a lizard’s. There were plenty of them too, stuck to the branches even above his head. In that moment he wanted so badly to be thankful, but all he could think about was how damn weird nature was.

 

The spots were the dragons broke through his skin were numb, freezing even. In minutes Keith was shivering. Over sized goosebumps popped up from the space around the bloody welts. Keith was shaking so violently he could barely get his hands on any of the branches around him. He ripped Lance’s jacket of his waist and buried himself in it. It was too big for him in the most perfect way. Keith whimpered at the thought of his blood stains ruining his sole possession. 

 

The spiny animals gathered around him once again. They were intrigued by the chattering of his teeth.

 

It was a horrible feeling, his skin boiling under the warmth of the jacket, but his insides dealt frozen solid and dead. Keith was sweating and that only made him feel colder. His head feel back and hit the bark. There was still so much daylight left. 

 

But Keith couldn't move his systems were slowing down. His heartbeat sounded low and hard in his ears like footsteps. It numbed his senses and slowed his thoughts and inevitably brought the feeling of drowsiness. 

 

Keith longed to jump into the sun, anything for warmth. If he only knew how much he would miss it with in seconds.How could it be this cold under the direct rays?

 

He would not give in to the pathetic lure of sleep again. Keith could fight this, he would not pass out again. The sunlight become Keith upwards, but his knees felt to knoppy to move. He crawled out wards along the path of the branch, porcupines shuffling out of his way.

 

Keith pulled his hood back to let his skin feel the sunlight. It burned, but it warmed the blood in his veins. His chattering teeth caught his bottom lip again, his tongue ran over his chapped and newly bloody lips. His heart was still frozen solid to the core. It sent soaks up his arms. Keith lurched forward and collapse into the trunk. It seemed futile for Keith to try and hold on to the branches, but he held on for dear life through every muscle spasm.

 

A thought occurred to Keith. He turned his arm over, exposing a bloody scab to the sun. His mouth closed around and he sucked and spat and repeated. To his relief, he regained feeling in his wrist somewhat. Then his tongue went numb. It was poison, not venom. Fantastic.

 

Keith's fingernails dug imprints into his temples. His chest heaved as Keith spat out anything he could until the muscles in his face went numb. 

 

Keith screamed into the trunk. The sound was horribly distorted, he couldn't move his lips. He tasted the grimy bark and bitter blood but couldn't do a thing about it. The sensations might fade if he waited long enough, but so many bit him… Keith started to wondered if he would live. If it was anything like a new bee sting that was not that farfetched. And these sure hurt more than a bee sting.

 

Keith ripped into the skin of the  tree with what was left of his fingernails. He felt his skin break and let more blood out. It still hurt less than the spasm raking his muscles. Keith couldn't  fall asleep now even if he wanted too. He would have to suffer through every second of this. Most of his skin was to numb to feel any of it, by everything else did. The icy cold made his muscles brittle like any movement would shatter them. His throat closed and burned around the hot air. Keith felt like nails were wedged in between his vertebrae, every muscle spasm coursed deeper through his flesh.

 

Keith shredded the bark in his hands, sweating in the sun until he couldn't breath. The sun burned him for hours as he slipped in our of reality with the waves of pain. Every time he thought it might be over his arm would fly off the vine, bring with it a stabbing rush of freezing cold sensation. So he stopped thinking.

 

His eyes drifted in and out of focus. All of what he could see was blue, interrupted by the hazy sway of leaves. 

 

Keith wanted to pass out now. He wanted the sweet relief of sleep, but he couldn't have a request even as simple as that.

 

He could only think of moving again at sunset. Keith's limbs felt foreign. The touch of his fingers on his own skin felt chillingly surreal. 

  
The wind felt freezing even though it was bond to be warm. Keith looked up at the pale sky. There were clouds. Subconscious unease filled his throat. The last time there were clouds the world had ripped it's itself in two. This time Keith hoped it would take him too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will they (I) ever rest? We'll have to wait and see. Anyways thank you all for you love! You guys are so patient and great!!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr @klancehell


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